Christmas with a Corduroy
by SuperGroverAway
Summary: For the first time in as long as she can remember, Wendy doesn't have to spend the end of December out in the woods doing the usual annual survival training with her family. The twins have invited her down to Piedmont so their friend can finally have the first genuine Christmas of her life. However, it seems that not everyone is happy to have a tomboy over for the holidays.
1. Chapter 1

When apocalypse warrioress-style Wendy offhandedly mentioned that her family didn't do Christmas in Weirdmageddon Part 1, right then and there I knew I had the seedlings for a story idea.

An enormous thanks goes out for ddp456 for providing a bounty of suggestions and for helping me take several disparate ideas and working them altogether into a cohesive plot. Also, big thanks to DeadSNESproject88 for the story's cover art!

Reviews, criticisms and whatnot are always welcome. You're also to politely point out any of the weird spelling or grammar issues that always seem to magically elude both my spell check and my proofreading. I hope you all enjoy chapter one of this multi-parter holiday fic! - _**SGA**_

* * *

Wendy had always done the holidays a little differently than all of her friends. To be more exact, she had never done them at all. Period.

Instead, at the end of every December Manly Dan would take his kids out for their annual apocalypse survival training, where they would spend several days out in the woods learning how to get by with the barest of basics, their wits, and good old fashioned Corduroy toughness. So while Christmas time for most other people meant gathering around a tree sharing presents, for Wendy Christmas time meant sitting out in a homemade dugout deep in the forests of Gravity Falls listening to her dad instruct her and her brothers how to properly skin a freshly killed deer or how to properly fashion a bow from a springy branch. Year after year, she and her siblings sacrificed the holiday for the sake of their father's paranoia. But because that's the way they had done things for as long as she could remember, she had long since accepted it as just the way things were.

This most recent summer however had brought quite a few major changes to the way things were, to say the very least. At one particularly dicey point when the town had been reduced to a depopulated wasteland, Wendy was surprised to find herself actually putting all the survival skills that her father had taught her over the years to very good use. But while using said skills to help her friends stop a potential apocalypse, she had briefly let slip about her family's rather unusual end-of-the-year tradition and how it had allowed her to remain one of the lucky survivors scraping by in the demon-ravaged ruins of Gravity Falls.

It had been revealed in nothing more than a quick one-line remark that her friend Dipper Pines had paid very little attention to at the time. After all, they had a couple things to focus on that were quite a bit more more important than this one odd detail about her family life. But after a certain triangular demon had been defeated and everyone could recover and finish the summer in happy peace, it wasn't very long until the ever-curious boy started to inquire more deeply about the Corduroys' peculiar holiday traditions. He simply couldn't help himself after having watched his friend in full apocalypse-warrioress action.

His twin sister soon caught wind of all this, and together the siblings decided that while undeniably cool, this was also an undeniable travesty. They literally couldn't comprehend the fact that the lumberjill had never celebrated a proper Christmas before (and that was saying a lot considering all they had experienced over past few months). In their minds, their friend's lifelong Christmas deprivation was something that had to be fixed as soon as seasonally possible.

And to make a long story short, such was how Wendy found herself seated in the back of a bus that December afternoon, tugging her earbuds out and gathering her things together as the vehicle lumbered into the depot.

"Oakland!" The driver announced. Thanks to the long drive down from Oregon, Wendy moved stiffly as a zombie as she wobbled her way down the aisle. She thanked the driver, staggered off, and only had to wait a grand total of one second before she was attacked.

"WENDYYYYYYY!" A brunette blur flew out of seemingly nowhere, latched onto the redhead's waist and immediately started squeezing as hard as she lovingly could. A near-identical little thirteen-year-old dodged around a pack of commuters as he caught up. Dipper was so excited that he fumbled over his own tongue for a few moments.

"Y-you're here." He finally managed to sputter lamely, to his own dismay. Less than a minute into their reunion and already he embarrassed himself. Dipper immediately went bright red in the face. Wendy burst out laughing as she grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him close. Soon she could feel his noodle arms wrap tightly around her, and she eagerly returned the favor by crushing both siblings back in a hug-of-war.

"Hey, doofuses." The lanky teen was already smiling so hard that it almost hurt. It felt so good to be back with her "other" family.

"Heeeey, Wen-Wen! Ooooh, I can't believe it! You're here! With us! You're here! You're here! You're finally, definitely one million percent heeeerrrreee!" Mabel let go so she could perform an ecstatic spin. "So! Are you ready to Christmas like you've never Christmassed before in your whole entire life?"

Always one for showmanship, the quirky little thirteen-year-old unzipped her windbreaker and revealed one of her most spectacular sweaters yet. It had a sleigh and eight little reindeer, a snowboarding snowman, snowflakes of all shapes and sizes, and to top it all off, it glowed and blinked with actual Christmas lights of all colors that dotted it everywhere. The girl had managed to make herself into a living yard decoration.

"What if I said no?" Wendy playfully asked.

"Trick question! You have no choice!" Mabel revealed.

"Sweet." She approved with a double thumbs up. It was then that she noticed her other friend was still squeezing her side. "Uh, Dipper?"

Dipper yanked himself away as if she was on fire. "Oh! Sorry, I uh….I just kind of….uh, zoned out back there, thinking about….uh, the stuff with….um….things…."

"Relax." Wendy grabbed her former trapper hat from where it sat atop his head and playfully tugged it down over his eyes. After he righted it back in place she leaned in and flashed him a toothy grin. "I missed you too dude."

Dipper smiled back sheepishly. "Glad you could make it."

"That makes two of us." She slung her bags over her shoulders and cast a long look around. "Man, I can't believe I'm actually down here."

"I can't believe getting your dad to go along with this was the easy part." Dipper exclaimed with genuine disbelief. He felt like Manly Dan wasn't the kind of fellow who gave in easily to anything. Wendy just smirked back proudly.

"He felt like I definitely earned it." She then let out a sigh. "Your folks though….seriously, it took them for-ev-ver to give me the green light to come down."

"I know, I know." Dipper rolled his eyes as he recalled back-and-forth emails, phone calls, video chats and general uncertainty that lasted all the way until the end of November.

"Ooopsies! Hold one a sec!" Mabel's sweater had gone out. As she rewired everything back to the car battery she had been carrying in her sparkly backpack, she rejoined the conversation with a grateful squeak. "Lucky for us, Stan came in for the save!"

"I heard. Sounded like you had an interesting Thanksgiving with both the geezers over." Wendy joking understated, having heard all the stories from the twins already.

Although she was clearly happy to be there, what wasn't so obvious to her friends was the small wad of anxiety sticking in the back of her brain. If this holiday trip took that much work to get the official OK , how much could the Pines parents really want to deal with the likes of her? She had been doing some thinking, and she hadn't liked what she came up with. Even the most flattering description of her would probably make her out to be….something of a character at best, at least in a place like this. She didn't know that much about where her friends lived, but she knew it was definitely no Gravity Falls.

She didn't have very much time to stew with her thoughts. The twins led her out of the bus depot where a car awaited them.

"We found herrrrrr!" Mabel sang triumphantly.

"Great!" A trim bearded man waved them all over. He bore the trademark milk chocolate hair and eyes, making his identity pretty obvious on first glance alone. The closer Wendy got, the family resemblance grew even stronger. He managed to remind her of both the young twins and Stan and Ford back up in Oregon.

"Hey…..uh, Mr. Pines?" She safely assumed.

"Hey there! Welcome!" As he took one of her bags and popped it into the back he asked, "Sorry, but we had to make a stop on the way over, so space is a little tight right now. You don't mind riding back in the trunk, do you?"

A goofy grin had already spread across his face before he even finished talking, and he then proceeded to crack up at his own dumb joke. Dipper let out a sigh, and while Mabel giggled even she couldn't but help roll her eyes just a little bit. Wendy however decided she liked him immediately.

"I'm the dad, just in case it's not clear yet." He laughed as he gave her a warm handshake.

"Wendy. I think we talked on the phone like, once or twice?"

"Uh-huh! Glad you could join us down here." As far as she could tell he was being completely sincere, much to her relief. "How was the trip?"

"Not bad." She shrugged. "Slept a lot of the way, read through a few magazines, listened to some music."

"Good for you. Sounds like you handled it better than my guys here." He affectionately ribbed his own brood.

"Oohhhh, we were fine!" Mabel brushed it off. "A long trip just meant lots of time to play Bus-Seat Treasure Hunt! Isn't that right bro-bro?"

"Twenty times in a row was at least fifteen times too many." Dipper immediately protested as he recalled their epic bus trip at the start of the summer.

"Says you! Every expedition found whole new discoveries! Remember that piece of gum that looked like Grover Cleveland?"

"Yes. You made me take a picture of you with it. And for the record, it looked like John Adams." He corrected.

"Pfffft! Oh yeah it did, in Cuckoo Backwards Crazy Land!" She scoffed.

The twins continued the debate as they got into the car, and Wendy laughed like a loon as she followed them in. It was so, _so_ good to have the crew back together.

"Leaving the station! Next stops, Walla Walla, Cucamonga, and Piedmont!" The twins' cornball of a father announced like a train conductor as he pulled away from the curb. Wendy sat in the middle of the back with a sibling on either side of her. The sizable drive to their nearby hometown seemed to take no time, even with the small patch of traffic they hit. She was too distracted chatting up with her friends. Even though it had only been a week and a half since their last video call (she always tried to in touch with at least Dipper once a week), Mabel still had a lot of exploits to catch her up on.

"...And so then we head into lunch the next day, and what do I see? Two, I counted them, two people dunking their fries in their chocolate pudding!" She boasted while braiding Wendy's long scarlet locks. "Mabel Pines, Trendsetter Extraordinaire, does it again!"

"I'll be sure to tell everyone all about it when I get back home." Wendy noted.

"Be sure you do! Making new combos really goes a long way in improving cafeteria food!" The brunette spoke as an expert, getting yet another chuckle out of the teen. At this rate Wendy felt like her sides were going to burst within the hour.

"Anyway," she clapped her hands on her thighs. "So now that I'm here, what do you dudes got in store for me?"

"A lot." Dipper hinted simply with a smile. She punched him in the side.

"You gotta give me more than that. I'm pretty new at this stuff, remember? What's it gonna be to get me all holiday-dayed up, or whatever? Carols? Roasting chestnuts on an open fire? Putting…..putting a partridge in a pear tree?" She playfully guessed, recalling what little bits she already knew. "That's a Christmas thing, isn't it?"

"Yup, and then we'll need to go find two turtle doves and a couple French hens." He sassed her. "Preferably three."

"And then we'll have a Nutcracker ballet later, right?" She kept it up. "Go and help the toys fight off the gopher king and his army?"

"Oh yeah, that's definitely on the itinerary." He joked, then corrected her, "But it's actually the rat king-"

"HA!" She sprung her trap. "We saw that when I was in middle school."

"Ooooohhhhhh!" Mabel high-fived the crafty fifteen-year-old.

Dipper was beet-red again as he let his head slump against the seat. "Definitely walked right into that one."

"Yeah you did, dork." Wendy grinned affectionately.

"Okay, home sweet home!" Mr. Pines announced as he pulled into the driveway. It was only then that Wendy realized they had exited the core of the city and were now in a spiffy-looking neighborhood.

"Whoa." She couldn't help but marvel a little at the two-story house before them. It just looked so clean and well-kept and….well, she knew that for the area it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Still, even for a nondescript place like this, she couldn't help let the word "fancy" spring to mind. At least that's what it was compared to what she was used to.

"Nice, huh? That's why I got into teaching high school physics. It's where the big bucks are at!" Mr. Pines joked with a wink. "Though the missus helps pay some of the bills with her dental practice."

"It's….yeah, nice." Wendy didn't get a chance to take in the sight for much longer. Dipper suddenly appeared beside her, thoughtfully albeit ungracefully carrying all of her bags at once. Before she could offer to help, Mabel nabbed her by the wrists and yanked her along.

"C'mon! Let's go! Let's goooo-ooooooooo!" She sang. "There's a little chubby gentleman who can't wait to see yooooou!"

"Okay, okay!" It was then that she noticed that the house actually looked a little bare compared to its neighbors. "Yo, no decorations yet? Thought you'd be all about that."

"We're here!" Mabel announced as she opened the door, then rejoined their conversation without missing a beat. "Oooohh, you bet I am! We're decorating the living bazoogas out of this place!"

"We were saving that for when you got here." Dipper gasped as he put the bags down.

"And that's just one of the activities planned for your holiday-extravaganza! Because this isn't going to just be your first Christmas!" Mabel shook her head furiously. "Nope! This is also going to be your best Christmas-"

They were interrupted by an appalled cry that sounded straight out of a horror movie. A slender woman with short, shoulder-length black locks was currently gawking with indescribable dismay at something behind the arrivals. Wendy quickly followed the woman's bugging stare stare to the incredibly thick trail of muck that she tracked in, courtesy of her boots.

Oops.

"...Uh..." Mabel cleared her throat and finished, "Your...um...best Christmas ever."


	2. Chapter 2

Well, this was awkward.

Wendy froze as she met the woman's horror-stricken stare. At least now she had a good guess who had been the holdup for the last few months.

A pink butterball of a pig came trundling out of the living room. As soon as Waddles laid eyes on the familiar freckled face he beelined straight to the redhead with an excited squeal. The merciful interruption brought a relieved smiled to her face.

"Hey there, pig dude." She scratched the little annimal behind the ears. The girl then braced herself and sheepishly met the unhappy gaze of Mrs. Pines. "Uh, hey. So, I'm Wendy, and um…..my bad about the rug."

Thankfully the embarrassed looks on the twins' faces helped the woman snap out of it. Even though neither of her children said a word, they both wordlessly made it pretty clear that this was no way to treat a guest. The flustered woman cleared her throat and recomposed herself. "Oh, um, yes, of course. I'm….uh, I'm sorry, I must have given you a little bit of a scare back there, didn't I?"

 _Just a small heart attack,_ thought the teen. "It's fine. Look, I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, it's fine. It's only a little mess." Despite her reassurance, it was clearly much more than a mere little mess to her. Her eyes wandered back to the catastrophic trail of boot prints marking the formerly spotless carpet and sighed, "Oh, and we just got this cleaned….."

"It's just a rug." Wendy shrugged. This "disaster" was nothing compared to an average day in the Corduroy cabin. An annoyed glance quickly made her walk back her remark. "Uh, sorry."

"No it's fine." Ms. Pines likewise stood down for the sake of the uncomfortable tension that was rapidly filling the room. "Just….when you're coming in and out, could you please just wipe your boots off on the mat?"

"Yeah, no prob." The teen nodded.

"And maybe you can even just leave them right by the-"

"Mom!" Dipper interrupted with a groan. She shot him a disapproving look, but he added defensively, "She just got here."

She took another deep breath and conceded. "You're right, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just feeling a little…look, don't worry about it. "

And with that she gave each of her children a quick pat on the head before heading out the door. "Sorry I can't stick around, I need to go and take care of some things. Bye! I'll see you in a few hours, okay?"

In no time the matriarch of the Pines household was out the door, in her car and pulling out of the driveway to go show some errands no mercy. Wendy glanced to her friends and said sarcastically, "Well, totally nailed that first impression."

Mabel bounced on over for a hug around the waist. "It's okay! Trust me, I make messes LOTS of times."

"Yeah, Mom can just get a little wound up sometimes." Dipper generously understated, followed by a grimace. "Sorry."

"We're cool." Wendy wanted to remark about spotting some family resemblance between mother and her often high-strung friend, but she held back her tongue. For now.

"It's fine. The holidays always get my Lynda in a bit of a tizzy." Mr. Pines cheerily brushed the matter aside. "And it doesn't help that people always try to squeeze in heavy-duty dental work around this time."

"That's…..huh." The teen didn't know how to reply to that.

"Yeah. Welcome to the Bay Area, located about five miles west of Reality." The cornball of a man successfully got another laugh out of her.

"Coming from a town in the middle of nowhere, I think I could actually do with a little more weird." She and Dipper shared a knowing look. According to her friends, quite a few details had been wisely omitted from their summer Oregon, and it didn't hurt to do her part to keep the 100% dull sleepy backwoods town facade up.

"Sounds like you're going to handle yourself just fine." The oblivious father chuckled. "All right, you get settled in. I'll clean up here, and then I'll call in for pizzas in about an hour."

"C'mon, Wendy!" Mabel grabbed the redhead by the hand, but Wendy motioned for her to wait.

"Just take off your shoes. I have a whole thing about shoes." She performed a spot-on impersonation of a certain prissy jerk of a unicorn while she tugged her boots off.

"Uh-uh, I'm talking to allll of you!" Mabel waggled a finger. Both girls cracked up while Dipper bemusedly watched on. Wendy was then led her to the guest room where she was in for a sight. The bed was covered with a small crowd of Mabel's stuffed animals, with each one clad in a little hand-knitted flannel shirt.

"They're in case you get homesick." The arts and crafts master said proudly.

Dipper meanwhile was now wishing he had put more effort into his contribution. It was just a simple "Welcome Wendy" sign hanging taped on the wall, ringed by a few scattered photos of her and the twins and scrawled in his scratchy handwriting.

But as he watched her emerald eyes wander over to it, he sucked it up and awkwardly admitted, "That's, uh….that's mine."

"This is amazing." Wendy beamed. Her grin grew by at least inch. She honestly didn't expect them to be this happy to have her over. They were acting like they had won the lottery.

"Really?" Dipper replied incredulously.

"Uh-huh. Dudes, you totally you didn't have to do this."

"No offense, but that's where you are dead wrong! A big part of Christmas is having friends or family visit. Or both! " Mabel let out a sudden squeal. "Oooh! You're like, both at once! You're friemily!"

"I like the sound of that." Wendy flung her bags on the bed. "Anyway, thanks for tricking my pad out. So, what are we doing next?"

"Oh, we got plans." Dipper excitedly signaled to his twin and started to announce,

"Holiday movie mar-"

"Christmas movie-" Mabel started, and both stopped when they realized they were completely out of sync. "Wait, isn't it supposed to be Christmas mov-"

"No wait," Her confused brother interrupted. "I thought we were…..wait, wait, you're right, I remember now. Sorry."

"It's okay! Do-over in three, two..." Mabel counted down on her fingers and this time they announced in adorable sibling unison, "Christmas movie marathon!"

"Awesome." Wendy cackled. "We talking like, those crazy old movies with the creepy claymation stuff?"

At the mere mention of this, Mabel hugged one of her stuffed animals from off the bed and shuddered. " _No_."

"Ooooh, right. Sorry Mabes." Wendy quickly remembered her friend's unusual phobia. Ever the dutiful sibling, Dipper was quickly at his twin's side and patting her back.

"Yeah, we're uh….still not a big fan of those." He gently put it. "Luckily we still got a pretty good collection to pick from."

After Mabel's quick recovery, the next several hours passed like one of the many movie nights they had held over the summer. Greasy pizza, loads of snacks, and a bunch of supposedly classic films that didn't hold up very well to the test of time. To put it bluntly, it was everything that Wendy could hope for.

"...Whoa, whoa, so wait." She protested as she watched an animated snowman come to life onscreen. "Happy birthday? What's he even talking about? This is supposed to be a Christmas movie, right?"

"Frosty's saying that because it's his birthday!" Mabel explained around a mouthful of popcorn. "Duh! He was just born!"

"Dude? That's kind of messed up." She gave her two cents. "I mean, so he's basically like a giant baby now?"

"Technically, I guess." Thanks to her fresh perspective Dipper now had to concede, "Wow. This movie just got a lot more disturbing."

"It's so messed up, man! I mean, look at those kids! Why aren't any of them running away? It was just a bunch of snow a second ago, and now it's like, an actual guy." She cupped her hands over her mouth and jokingly called out to the characters, "Yo, keep away from that thing!"

"He just wants to make friends!" Mabel tossed some popcorn at her.

"How do they know that? How does it even know what a friend is? How does he even know how to walk, or talk, or like, anything?" She kept riffing. "If I said 'happy birthday' and tried to sing a song as soon as I was born, my parents would've gotten an exorcist, pronto."

"He gets all his knowledge from the hat!" The younger girl explained. "It's magic, silly!"

"Magic bringing something dead to life?" The teen shot her a look. "Mabes, c'mon."

"Oh man." Dipper realized where she was getting at. "That's like, the textbook definition of a zombie."

"Took you long enough." She teased the Mystery Twins. "Just a couple months away from Weird Central and you guys are getting rusty already."

"Whelp, guess those kids are doomed then." He deadpanned, and they all immediately cracked up.

"They deserve it, if you ask me. Look at them!" Wendy laughed. "C'mon! Just run away from him already!"

"He's going to go for your brains!" Dipper warned.

"It's night of the Living Snow-bie!" Mabel now got in on the stupid fun. There was a sudden ding from the kitchen, and the brunette shot to her feet. "Yes! Cookies are done!"

"Need a hand?" Wendy paused the movie.

"Nope, your orders are to stay here and keep enjoying yourself. And then you're going to eat at least two reindeer, one wreath, and three stars before bed tonight!" The little hostess ordered.

"Yes ma'am." Wendy rolled over onto her side and playfully saluted.

"Holiday Heroine, awaaaaaaay!" Mabel sprinted off into the kitchen.

"Have I told you how boring things are back home without you guys?" Wendy grinned, even though she knew the answer. She probably brought it up in at least half her emails and chats.

Dipper smiled before getting to his feet. "Hold on, be back."

She watched him head towards the kitchen. "You sure you guys don't need me?"

"Yeah, I just….need to make sure Mabel doesn't go overboard on the frosting." With this hasty excuse he slipped off.

His twin was happily crooning :Jingle Bells" to herself as she worked like a cheery little machine as she decorated the cookies with incredible speed. She saw her brother enter and waved him off. "It's okay. All set here, bro-bro."

"I know." He coughed before lowering his voice. "So, uh...how do you think we're doing so far?"

"Doing what?" She kept bustling about, never still for a second. .

"You know, with…." He nodded towards the living room. Mabel shot him a puzzled look, then had herself a small giggle-fit.

"Hey, Nervous Nelly? When you find where Dipper went, can you tell him to stop being such an anxious butt?" She gave her twin a gentle push, leaving a smear of red frosting on his shirt.

"Mabel…." He groaned. This was not the sibling reassurance he had been hoping for. Despite all their fun so far, he had been nursing small knot in his gut ever since the rough introduction with their mother earlier. "I just want to make sure she's okay. I mean, this is like, literally her first real Christmas. We made her come all the way down here, and then as soon as she walks in the door Mom goes all…"

Mabel let him anxiously bvent a little until she had assembled a gorgeous platter of handmade treats. She then silenced him by shoving a cookie into his mouth. "You need to just relax and enjoy yourself. I mean, this is our Wen-Wen you're talking about! It's not like we can do something to like, get her upset and make her head all the way back to-"

They returned to the den to find their friend gone. Dipper's stomach automatic tightened harder. Thankfully, the mystery of the missing lumberjill wasn't very difficult to crack; the opened sliding door was the only clue they needed. They found her standing in the middle of the little backyard, gazing out at nothing in particular.

"Wendy?" Dipper called out.

"Huh?" She snapped out of her reverie.

"You okay?" He scampered over to her side.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. While I was waiting I wanted to see what the weather was like right now." She explained as she rolled up her sleeves. The teen genuinely marveled at the feel of such gentle night air on her skin.

"So, what do you think?" Mabel did a twirl and grinned. "Pretty nice, huh?"

"Nice? Nice? Ohhhh man, I can't believe you guys even bother calling this winter down here. I'd seriously kill for December weather like this back home." Wendy took another moment to relish the touch of the marvelously mild temperature with a sigh. "Okay, so I know like, we have Christmas traditions and junk to do, but….you mind if we hang out here? Maybe for just a couple minutes?"

Considering how much time they had spent over the past summer lazily lounging with her up on top of their great-uncles' home, this was hardly an outrageous request. They all settled down in the grass around the overloaded plate of Mabel's cookies.

"You're really liking this, huh?" Dipper asked.

"Oh yeah, it's like total paradise out here. Plus…. okay, freak-alert coming, but honestly, it feels kind of weird actually being inside and like, actually comfortable." She confessed. "I mean like, being inside during this time of year. I'm calling it now, I'm going to be super confused when I wake up in a real bed tomorrow."

"When your Dad makes you do your training thingy, do you get to use a tent or anything?" Mabel asked around a mouthful of one of her homemade treats.

"Only for the first few years when you're younger. And then when my Dad thinks you're old enough, you have to make your own shelter from then on out."

"Out of what?" Dipper pried inquisitively.

"Whatever you can get. Branches, rocks,...maybe if the ground's not too cold you can try and dig yourself a little cave and cover that up."

Mabel giggled at the thought of her friend burrowing underground. "Haha! Like a big bunny!"

"Sort of, actually." Wendy chuckled. "I have had to use my hands a couple of times. But a nice flat rock works best. But you can only do that if you're lucky and the ground's not frozen solid, which it usually is. Maybe if you hunt around you can find a hole something's already dug, but then you have to check to make sure nothing's…."

Before she knew it she was giving a full-blown lesson. Not that the twins minded at all. They both listened intently, Dipper particularly so. The boy was absolutely fascinated with everything she had to say (he was usually fascinated by whatever she had to say, but right now he was more so than usual). Even on the few campouts he got to do up in Gravity Falls he had never gotten to do anything close to what his friend apparently did every year in the harshest of conditions. He marveled at the tough-as-nails girl.

"And you would spend the whole night in whatever you made?" He piped up with a question.

"Several nights in a row. I mean, if you know what you're doing, it's really not that bad."

"Soooo…." His mind started wandering. "Let's say...I dunno, some disaster happens and you're stuck here. Could you make a shelter here in the back yard?"

"Pffft! You kidding?" She looked around the neatly kept little yard. "Like, it wouldn't even be a challenge."

"Really? How would you do it?" "Dipper immediately asked.

"Like, would you use stuff from inside the house, or we talking about outside-stuff only?" Mabel chirped.

As both her younger friends bore into her with curious stares and peppered her with questions, the corners of her mouth curled into a smile. "...You guys wanna see how a pro does it?"

* * *

"Sam! Sam!"

Mr. Pines was roughly shaken out of a deep sleep, and he instinctively shot up in bed with a start. "Huh? Wha….Lyn, w-what's wrong?"

"The kids!" The blurry outline of his wife answered frantically. He groped at the bedside table until he could find his glasses.

"What about them?"

"They're gone!"

"Wha…." He sat up. "What do you mean they're gone?"

"They're gone!" She repeated impatiently. "The twins aren't in their rooms, Wendy's not in her bed, and…..they're just not here! None of them are!"

"Okay, okay, hold on." He kept a calm head as he clambered from bed to follow his anxious spouse down the hall. True to her word, a look into each room revealed only empty beds.

"Maybe they just camped out in the living room."

"I already checked!" She led him downstairs. All they found was a half-empty bowl of popcorn, some pillows, and a movie still on pause. He scratched his head.

"Maybe…..they could have just gone out early for….uh…." He brainstormed. "Maybe the kids just wanted to show her…...um…..have you tried calling them?"

"Yes! And no answer! From any of them! There's no note, literally no trace of where they possibly could have gone, it's barely seven in the morning…."

The worried mother was interrupted when Waddles started scratching at the sliding door with a little cloven hoof. Mrs. Pines groaned at the family pet.

"Not now, Waddles."

"Hold on, he just needs to go out." Her husband nodded apologetically as he temporarily excused himself. "I'm comin' boy."

He opened the door, and the little animal trundled into the backyard. But instead of tending to his early morning business, the couple noticed that he headed straight towards a bush that neither of them could remember ever being there before. Waddles stopped, sat down, and waited expectantly for…..something. Both Pines curiously followed him outside.

"Uh….hello?" Mrs. Pines cautiously called out. She got a mighty spook when part of the "bush" was pushed aside to reveal a bleary-eyed fifteen-year-old.

"Huh?" Wendy yawned. "Is….issit time to get up?"

Mrs. Pines needed a few moments to process the strange sight. The "shrub" was actually a kind of handmade shelter, made entirely from sticks, leaves, a piece of signboard and some other odds and ends that the teen had scrounged from somewhere. The structure wasn't anything grandiose, but it was big enough to snugly accommodate about three. Both Dipper and Mabel were still slumbering, with their sleeping bags overlapping heavily on either side of Wendy as they remained snuggled tightly against her.

"Everythingokay?" The dozy redhead mumbled as Waddles squeezed past her inside.

"What…..what….." The mother sputtered breathlessly. "What are you….why-"

Her husband stepped in and answered on their behalf. "No, no, it's fine. You can go back to sleep. Uh, cereal and milk is in the kitchen whenever you want breakfast."

"Oh. Cool." Wendy nodded before proceeding to do a quick check on her bunkmates. Waddles was trying to worm his way into the tight huddle, and so she tucked him into Mabel's arms like a stuffed animal. She then drew up the zipper of Dipper's sleeping bag a little tighter, let out another gaping yawn and unceremoniously closed up the entrance. In an instant they all vanished from sight, and once again Mr. and Mrs. Pines found themselves gazing upon what looked like nothing more than an oddly-shaped bush.

"Wait….wait, she….."

"They're fine." Her husband pat her shoulder and he meant every word. After all, they were still at home and safe. But as he led her back towards the house, she continued reeling from the bizarre shock.

"What….she….she had them all sleeping outside….all night? Out here? Like a…..like a…..they were like bunch of raccoons, sleeping out in a….a…." She stopped and pointed back to the survival shelter. "Just what is that supposed to even be, anyway?"

He shrugged. "Looks like some pretty good camouflage, if you ask me….."


	3. Chapter 3

"...Okay, we're leaving!" Mrs. Pines announced as she and her husband gathered up the hefty assortment of packages. Each and every one was carefully wrapped, meticulously labeled and ready for the mail.

"Hold on, we got a couple more things!" Mabel called from upstairs. The twins hurriedly rushed down the steps with arms loaded with a few more presents to send out to various friends and family. Through a near-miracle their father managed to add them to his pile and pick the whole lot up in one ungraceful go.

"We'll see you guys in a week!" His face was just barely peeking above the tower of packages as he got in one more joke before heading out the door. Together the couple headed off to bravely face the long lines at the downtown post office.

As soon as they left, Wendy immediately felt comfortable enough to leave the guest room. The Pines matriarch hadn't looked like a very happy camper (ironically enough) when the kids all drowsily stumbled into the house after their night spent outside. So the lumberjill teen had wisely been staying out of sight and keeping a safe distance since then.

"What'd you guys need to mail?" She pried curiously while brushing the last few tangles from her long scarlet locks.

"A couple things back up your way, actually!" Mabel bounced on her toes as she explained. "A Christmas sweater for Soos…"

"And one for Melody too." Dipper added. "Plus a new tool belt and a scarf for them."

"Cookies for Candy and Grenda, and a Christmas sweater each!"

"We also got matching ties for Grunkle Stan and Ford."

"And let me guess." Wendy looked to Mabel. "Two geezer-sized Christmas sweaters?"

"Nope! A whole lot of Mabel Christmas cheer!" She then remembered. "Oh yeah, and matching sweaters too!"

"A whole lot of what?" Wendy cocked an eyebrow. "Okay, how do you send cheer exactly?"

"With a video of my almost-one woman performance of 'A Christmas Carol,' of course!" Mabel grinned. "Complete with musical numbers, special effects, and the role of the miserly yet adorable Ebenezer Scrooge played by Waddles."

"That's one weekend I won't ever get back." Dipper was feeling tired just thinking about all that camerawork that he had been forced to do. "She wanted to to do it all in one take."

"That's because it was all part of my artistic vision!" She justified. "No breaks, no pauses, just a full on-Christmas classic from start to finish! Oooh! Speaking of, I have the extended edition on my computer! You wanna see it, Wendy? It's also got director's commentary and bloopers!"

While Mabel wasn't looking, Dipper shook his head and frantically whispered a few "no's" to his friend. She assured him with a speedy wink.

"Maybe later." Wendy gently replied before craftily changing the subject. "Don't you guys still have to like, decorate the house?"

"Oh yeah! We totally got that on today's holiday agenda!" Mabel pointed to the boxes of lights that had been pulled out of the basement. "See?"

"Okay, so what's the drill here? We doing that bushes first? The door? How's this work?" She sorted through the colorful Christmas tangles.

"We try and change it up." Dipper explained. "One year we kind of outlined the front of the house, last year we strung up all the trees and the fence, and this year….well, like we said yesterday, we thought we'd wait to see if you had anything in mind."

Wendy did in fact have something in mind. Without further ado she began to pump her fists up and down as she started off a slow, steady chant. "Roof….time….roof….time….roof time…..roof time….roof time…."

It wasn't long until she expertly wound up her younger friends, and their chorused whoops soon started to ring through the house.

"...Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof time!"

Dipper broke off from the group and started dashing off for the garage.

"Whoa dude, where are you going?" His friend demanded.

"Uh, to get the ladder?" He bemusedly answered

"Ladder? You kidding me?" Wendy scoffed. She hefted up a box of lights, beckoned them along, and the twins followed her upstairs. "I don't even know the meaning of that word."

It didn't take her long to find the perfect second-floor window from which to crawl up on top of the house. Once outside she then pull each twin up one at a time after her with with the speediest of ease for her. The next hour or so was dashing about and putting together a display, abruptly getting struck by a new burst of inspiration halfway through and starting all over again from the beginning. Their fourth plan proved to be the keeper, and when everything was in place the trio stepped back to admire their handiwork.

"A masterpiece!" Mabel proclaimed triumphantly.

"I almost wish the sun wasn't up." Dipper admitted, wishing they could light it up already. Wendy almost sent the two of them toppling over from hearty claps on their backs.

"Alright, consider this roof officially Christmassed! Or whatever." She took the empty boxes and lazily kicked them off down into the front yard.

"Oooh, wait Wendy! Do your thing!" Mabel realized this was both the perfect opportunity and height for their friend to show off some of her famous lumberjill moves. "Your jumpy thing!"

"YEAH!" Dipper tried to walk back his explosion of overexcitement quick as he could. He coughed and scratched at the back of his neck "Uh, you don't have to, but….if you want to, you could."

"What?" She feigned ignorance. "I have no clue what you guys are even talking about."

Wendy then flung herself off with a graceful leap. In honor of the family name, there actually stood one tall skinny evergreen tree planted in the front yard. For the lumberjack's daughter it was the perfect exit down, and she rode its bending trunk all the way to the lawn with no problem at all. She cockily did a bow for her cheering friends.

"Oooh, yes! So graceful! Like...like a bit a beautiful green and red bird coming to land! " Mabel poetically gushed as she stood a little too close on the edge of the roof for Dipper's liking. Her twin grabbed her by the neck of her sweater and gently pulled her back a few inches.

"Don't try to chuck yourselves off or anything. It definitely takes time to get the hang of that." She warned from down below. "First time I tried that was the second time that I broke my arm."

A mischievous thought occurred to her. "But maybe you could hitch a ride…."

The twins could only watch as she snickered and raced back into the house.

"Where'd she go?" Mabel asked. Dipper merely shrugged as he fidgeted in anticipation. He was always eager to see what the veritable personification of cool had in mind. A thump of boots announced Wendy's return to the roof.

"Okay, Corduroy Flight 13 is set for landing in a couple minutes. Put your tray tables and up, and seat belts on." She waved a long belt she had snatched from their parents' room. "Who wants to go first?"

"Wait…." Dipper read all the clues pretty quickly. "Are you-"

"Me! Me!" His sister literally leapt at the opportunity by jumping onto their friend and hugging her hard.

"Alright! Hold on a sec, Mabes." Wendy looped the belt around and cinched it tight, binding them two together. Mabel giggled excitedly as they made their way to the edge.

"Now?" She asked impatiently.

"Now yet. Make sure you're all on me first." Wendy directed. The girl lifted her legs and was now latching onto her friend like a baby koala, leaving the redhead standing for the two of them.

"Have you ever done this before?" Dipper cautiously checked. "Like, with your brothers?"

"Nah , not even once." She cackled. "Okay, one, two, three!"

Every muscle in Dipper tensed tight as a bowstring the instant the girls left the roof. Wendy still made it down the tree and onto the front lawn with ease, although her landing was less graceful than normal thanks to the extra weight.

"YEEAAAAH!" Mabel cheered. Even when the belt was unbuckled, she still held on extra long to her friend for a happy squeeze. "Best trip EVER!"

"Glad you enjoyed it." Wendy tousled her hair, sending brown locks spilling all over the girl's rosy-cheeked face. After releasing her passenger, she bounded back into the house, through the window and crawled back onto the roof where the other twin awaited. "Okay doofus, you're next!"

"Okay, let's do this!" Dipper clapped his hand, let out a charged whoop. Right on cue his voice immediately broke a little, betraying his entirely expected anxiety.

"Demon things,, monsters shapeshifters, and ghosts are no problem for you," She teasingly fired off several examples. "But one little trip down the-"

"I know, I know." He grinned weakly. "Look, I got this, okay?"

"Alright, hop aboard." Dipper awkwardly grabbed on, only to have her shift him towards her front.

"What are you doing?"

"Shhhh…..it's gonna be okay. Just listen to my heartbeat." She stroked his head like a mother calming a child. "There we go….niiiice and soothing, huh?"

Mabel fell down laughing at the ridiculous sight.

"Thanks. I feel so much better now.." Dipper said sarcastically as he moved to the lanky jokester's side. She cinched the belt of extra-tight.

"Sorry man, couldn't resist." She chuckled. "It's cool, I know you can totally handle this-"

Wendy proceeded to prove her point by leaping off without warning. Dipper's startled yell filled the air as they hurtled towards the tree and began the rapid slide down. Unfortunately she had been a little too hasty with her surprise take-off. After landing awkwardly on her feet, Wendy stumbled a couple paces before face planting into the lawn. After freeing himself, Dipper couldn't help but give her a big smirk the moment she raised her head from the lawn.

"How's karma feel?"

"Totally worth it." She replied shamelessly. Dipper yanked the brim of her (formerly his) blue-and-white pine tree cap down over her eyes. She responded in kind by pulling down her old hat as far as she could down his face, and for a moment the both of them had successfully rendered one another temporarily blind. Before either one could get loose Mabel threw herself onto the redheaded teenager's back with a warrior princess battle-cry, and a wrestling match quickly broke out. Like with most of their play-fights, it consisted mostly of both the twins holding out together in a desperate alliance against their friend.

"Calling in! This fight's going to Corduroy in one minute or less!" Wendy announced.

"No way!" Mabel cried as she held on tightly.

"You better watch out, Stan's been giving us tips!" Dipper warned, right before his friend sandwiched him against the ground.

"Oh yeah? What'd he tell you to do, overcharge people to fight you?" She smirkingly taunted.

"Nope! Teach us dirty tactics!" Mabel revealed, and immediately started tickling her ribs. The teen erupted with uncontrollable laughter as she tried to simultaneously shake the little brunette off and keep Dipper pinned. It was hard going, and as she tried her best it suddenly sounded like she was going too rough on the boy as she pushed down on his shoulder.

"Ow! Ow! W-Wendy!" He writhed in pain.

"Whoa, sorry!" She immediately let go. "You ok-"

He instantly dropped the act and tackled her waist. Even despite their fierce counter-attack, of course she wasn't going to go down that easily, and soon she had each arm wrapped around a squirming thirteen-year-old.

"You'll never take us alive!" Mabel cried dramatically. "Twins, unite!"

"Haha, yes! Looks like my Christmas present came early!" Wendy cackled as they tried breaking her hold. "My first worthy challenge!"

The trio kept energetically tousling in a fierce two-on-one struggle. At one point the siblings trapped Wendy down on the ground, or at least they thought they did.

"WOP!" Mabel flopped herself onto her friend's stomach and held on tight. "Gotcha!"

"Oh yeah? Boosh!" She flipped over them in a flash. "Tables turned, doofuses!"

"Is that all you got?" Dipper taunted, even as the sweat poured down his face in its usual excess.

The epic battle was abruptly cut short by the slam of a car door. They all stopped to find that the Pines parents were back, and the matriarch of the family wasn't looking too pleased. Play fights between her twins was one thing. But seeing her kids squished under a wiry-muscled teenager almost twice their size wasn't a spectacle she liked looking at.

"It's cool, they're putting up a good fight." Wendy laughed as she brushed some hair from her face. The remark failed to even get her the briefest of smiles.

"Not too rough, please." She warned exasperatedly. They took that as a clear-cut sign to knock it out. As they peeled themselves apart, Mr. Pines climbed out of the car wit a smile and a goofy crack at the ready.

"We're back! That went faster than I thought. We were only in line for two whole days."

"At least that's finally taken care of." His wife mentally checked it off the two-do list.

"Whoa! Looks like someone's been busy this morning." He stopped and marveled at the decorations.

"The S.S. Pines is prepped and ready to sail away to awesome holiday times!" Mabel jubilantly cheered. The announcement made her mother briefly brighten up.

"Oh, the lights are up? Wow, thank you for taking care of…." Mrs. Pines took her first good look at her roof. The lights had been painstakingly shaped to form the large, bold and simple message of "Pines Rule!" on top of the house for all the neighborhood to see. Surrounding this message were three figures all done up in surprisingly recognizable detail thanks to Mabel's excellent art skills (Dipper's representation stood out in particular thanks to accurately skimpy limbs). Suffice to say, this wasn't what she was expecting.

"Well that's something different." Mr. Pines burst out chuckling.

"Uh…." Mrs. Pines was still processing. This was a lot to take in at once.

Before she could pass any judgement though, everyone was suddenly soundly spooked by the shrill blare of a siren followed closely by the shrill screech of tires. They all whirled around and found a police cruised halfway pulled up on the sidewalk.

"Is everyone okay?" An officer asked as she and her partner scrambled from their car. Mere moments later another police car arrived and emptied two more officers onto the scene.

"Wha….." As her property was swarmed, Mrs. Pines was swiftly reduced to a flustered mess. "What happened?"

Three of the police officers carefully scoured the yard as another explained. "Just investigating a call. We had a report from a neighbor who said she spotted kids falling off a roof. We're just making sure that everything's okay here."

"Wait….falling off the…" Immediately she fixed her attention on Wendy.

The teen didn't notice her. Wendy was too distracted by the surrounding spectacle. She now fidgeted anxiously as she watched the stern-faced officers scan the area. After growing up with nothing to worry about except for the buffoons in Gravity Falls Sheriff's Department, she was unused to such hard professionalism.

Dipper cleared his throat as he stepped into the center. "Uh, officer? Ma'am? Excuse me?"

Her inquisitive stare shot down towards him, causing the boy to flinch reflexively. He coughed again and slapped up a convincingly reassuring grin. "Sorry, but I think there's been a big misunderstanding here. See, we were just putting up lights on the house, and….and…."

The boy's mind raced at a hundred miles an hour as he brainstormed a believable cover-up. "We got a sort of….uh, got careless with the ladder."

"Ladder?" The officer looked around.

"We just put it away a few minutes ago, right before you got here." Dipper hurriedly explained. "Anyways, we were sliding down it."

"Oh, right!" Mabel chimed in to add some credibility. "Yeah, we were being totally responsible going up there and walking around, but when we came back down, we decided we wanted to be all like, ZOOM! Zooooooom!"

"You know, when you put your feet and hands on the sides and you just slide down?" Dipper explained with a nervous chuckle. "I guess we were going a little too fast. Wait, what am I saying? I mean, if it looked like we were flying off of the house, then of course we had to….right? Anyways, uh…..sorry."

"Super-sorry!" Mabel turned up the charm to level eleven with the biggest, toothiest, most adorable brace-filled smile she could muster. The officer silently looked from twin to earnest-looking twin and then over to Wendy before waving her colleagues over.

"It's nothing. False alarm" She shook her head. "Some kids try and horse around a little and someone has to go and lose their mind…. jeez, some people. Alright, thanks for clearing that up for us. Didn't mean to cause you any alarm."

"Oh, uh, it's no problem." Mr. Pines quickly forgave them in spite of his ongoing bemusement. The officer got down on one knee in front of the twins.

"Before I head out, just remember this. Make sure to be more careful. No one wants to spend their holiday in the hospital." She dutifully reminded them.

"Of course! Lesson learned, one million percent!" Mabel chirped sweetly, and managed to successfully get a grin out of the stern woman. The officers quickly left, leaving the family in peace once again.

"Yikes, now who do you think called that in?" Mr. Pines started curiously scanning up and down the street. "Miss Henderson?"

His wife ignored his musing. Instead she fixed her attention right onto the ginger lumberjill and inquired suspiciously, "So…..sliding down the ladder?"

"Yeah, totally."Wendy put on the straightest face that she physically could. The twins backed her up with a pair of vigorous nods. "You'd be surprised by how much speed you can pick up on those things…."


	4. Chapter 4

Dipper was feeling worried, to say the least. And so after taking a late-night bathroom break, he decided to take a quick detour to check up on his family's guest.

Despite the little fiasco with the police, it had actually managed to be a pretty good day overall. The twins had spent the afternoon showing Wendy around Main Street, where an over-excited Mabel had practically dragged the redhead from decorated shop window to decorated shop window at top speed. Dipper finally made them stop for cocoa at one of the local coffee shops, where they spent the rest of the day happily gabbing and joking about long after they had all emptied their cups.

They returned home in time to enjoy their father's famous homemade mac and cheese. Wendy downed three heaping bowls and remarked how it definitely beat the roasted ground squirrel she'd probably be eating if she was still spending the holiday back in Gravity Falls. This remark made Mr. Pines laugh up a storm, and he jokingly declared that it was best compliment that his cooking had ever gotten (Mrs. Pines however abruptly decided she was feeling quite full, and excused herself early from the table). After a few more Christmas movies followed by an introduction to the epic world of toothbrush races, Wendy seemed happy enough when they all retired for the night.

Despite the day ending on a good note, all definitely wasn't well. The tension that had sparked between Wendy and his mom at the get-go was only getting worse. Sure, his parent had been acting polite enough, at least for the most part. But her tone and body language towards their guest every single time she had the redhead came into contact with one another were still far from welcoming. And of course that little "misunderstanding" with the cops hadn't helped things very much. Dipper swore that he even spotted his mom passing the teen a couple suspicious looks when she thought she wasn't looking during dinner. It was pretty clear; so far she wasn't a fan of having the lumberjill teen in her house.

Wendy seemed to be handling it well enough. But few people knew better than Dipper that everyone's beloved bag of ice could camouflage a lot more than just a survival shelter. So he figured he might as well see how she was really holding up.

As crept towards the half-open door to the guest room, Dipper mentally told himself over and over that this was okay. He was only checking on a friend. Yup, just a friend that he may or may not still have teensy bit of a lingering crush on. He was just being concerned, and there was definitely nothing weird going on here. Nope, not at all.

This suddenly became the least of his worries when he found an empty bed and no Wendy. He thought for a moment, dashed to his room to throw on pants, shoes, jacket, and trapper hat and then he rushed to the backyard.

"Wendy?" He called out as he peeked into the survival shelter. Unfortunately she wasn't there either.

Well, this definitely didn't look good. The boy hastily launched into an emergency search. After three fruitless loops around the house, he started hunting around the neighborhood. It was eerily quiet as he wandered about, his path lit by a few street lights and his own flashlight. His stomach knotted tighter and tighter the further he went down the block with nothing to show for his efforts. Soon he wound up near the playground in the small park the end of the street. Like everywhere else he had checked so far, there wasn't a single soul in sight. All he could find was a lone seagull pecking around an overturned garbage can.

He was about to turn around and head to the other end of the road when there was a sudden clang. Something had fired out of the dark and bounced off the trashcan mere inches from the hungry gull. It squawked before hurriedly taking off into the night. Dipper was so spooked that he would have done the exact same if he had wings and feathers. But instead he just stumbled back a few paces and tripped over his own feet.

"Dipper?" He got major deja-vu when he heard leafy rustling followed by his friend's voice.

"W-Wendy?" He breathlessly called back.

After a short silence, she dropped down from a nearby tree. Wendy was decked out with a flannel headband, fingerless gloves, camouflage jacket and a few twigs and leaves strategically threaded through her hair. The spectacle was topped off with a burning red blush that set her freckled face afire. Obviously she hadn't planned on anyone catching her like this.

"Uh….hey."

"You okay?" He rushed to her side.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I'm okay. I'm….um….." She scratched her neck, looked him in the eye, and after what felt like an uncomfortable eternity for her, she finally erupted with embarrassed laughter. The situation was so absurd that Dipper cracked up too. When the awkward mirth subsided, she asked him half-seriously. "Soooo tell me….what's it feel like to be friends with a crazy person?"

"No, no! You're just….you're just…..uhhhhh…." He wasn't exactly sure how to finish that sentence. "Wait, so are you….like, actually hunting right now?"

She noticed the way his eyes wandered inquisitively to her bow, and she held it out for him to look at. It was a simple handmade affair constructed from some line and a springy piece of wood.

"Kind of. It's more like….working some stuff out of my system." Wendy took a seat on a nearby bench.

"What do you mean?" Dipper sat down beside her.

"It all started out with me not being able to sleep at all tonight. Like, not at all. We're talking wide awake, like I chugged a couple cups of coffee."

"Why?"

" I think….it's like my body knows that right now I should either be curled up in a hole somewhere or looking for something to eat out in the middle of the woods. And because I'm spending the holiday with an actual bed and roof and regular food instead, my whole system is having insane trouble handling the change." She theorized.

"So you had to leave the house?"

"Oooh, big time. You should have seen it. I had all kinds of crazy pent up energy going on." She shook her wiry arms for effect. "I couldn't even lie still for a minute. It almost felt like I was going to pop. I couldn't stand it and so….yeah, I just had to go out and do some of my normal holiday routine."

"Whoa. I didn't know it was that hardwired into your system." Dipper exclaimed with surprise.

"Honestly? Me neither." The equally incredulous girl looked around at her quiet suburban surroundings, glanced at herself and grimaced at the ridiculous contrast. She then looked up to the night sky and scoffed. "Thanks a lot, Dad."

"It's okay." Her friend immediately tried to reassure her. "You're-"

"Dude, just look at me. I had to go out and answer the freaking call of the wild tonight." She grumbled and shook her head. "No wonder I'm driving your mom psycho."

Dipper winced. So she knew. Then again, it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret. "It's fine. She just-"

"She's why you guys had trouble getting the OK for me to come down here, isn't she?" Wendy decided to finally drop the question that had been stewing on her mind the past few days. The boy froze, but while he tried to think up a gentle answer his silence ended up speaking volumes more than he would have liked. The older teen sighed. "Figures. Not that I can blame her that much. I probably sounded like the Wild Woman of the North or something to her."

At this point she felt the need to remark, "Though honestly. It kinda feels like she'd still be wound pretty tight without having all my stuff to deal with. No offense or anything."

"None taken. Trust me, I know." Dipper confessed. "Okay, look. So maybe she got worried about having you spending some time down here with us….okay, not so much 'maybe'... but when Mabel and I talked about you, we never meant to freak her out or anything. All we wanted to do was show how….how…."

After a pause and some thought, he decided he wasn't going to sound cool no matter how he tried to phrase it. So he bit the bullet and put it honestly, "We wanted to let her know how amazing you are!"

"Serious?" She cocked her head.

"Yeah! I mean, everything about you is just….I mean, look at you right now. That bow and arrow set. You didn't bring that with you from home. You definitely made them all tonight. Right?"

"Well, yeah." She shrugged. "They're nothing much."

"Nothing much? That's incredible!" The boy gushed. "You made a functioning weapon! And then you took me completely by surprise just a few minutes ago! I had no idea you were nearby at all. Your stealth skills are so…..so….they're just so….I mean, I bet if you actually tried doing this during right in the middle of the day, I still wouldn't be able to spot you. Probably nobody would! Wendy, everything you do is amazing! And it's this kind of stuff that we told our parents all about. Not because we wanted to scare them, but because we wanted them to know how our friend was literally one of the coolest people we've met!"

It was at this point that Dipper felt like maybe he was going a tad overboard on all the praise. The boy clammed up with a nervous cough.

"Glad you don't mind me turning your holiday into a freakshow just yet." Wendy smiled. Her friend always knew how to give her spirits a boost whenever they flagged. Unfortunately her embarrassment continued to linger. She slumped her head on the back of the bench and sighed again as the grin faded from her face. "Wish I could say the same for some others, though."

Dipper fretfully kicked his legs back and forth as the two passed the next few seconds in silence. It looked like he was going to have to try a different route here. "Hey…..did I ever tell you about my thing with Santa when I was little?"

"Huh?" She raised her head.

"Santa. I had this whole thing with him."

"Wait, you talking about that time your Dad tried to take you to see him at the mall?" She let out a chuckle. "Yeah, you made yourself throw up just so you could go home, didn't you?"

He scratched the back of his neck and went a little red in the face. There wasn't too many secrets that they held from one another, and now there was about to be one less. "That was part of it."

"Part of it? Were you scared of all mall Santas?"

"Worse. Santa Claus in general." He confessed.

"Wait, really? I thought all kids were supposed to go totally crazy for him."

"Not me. It didn't start out that way though. I used to be totally fine with the whole Santa thing at first. But when I turned six I began asking myself some questions."

"What kind of questions?"

"I couldn't help but wonder about like...just what was this guy's deal? First of all, somehow he had a way to monitor everyone. I mean, how else is he going to know whether you've been good or bad? Then after watching you all year, he flies down from a secret hideout and finds a way to break into millions of homes in only one night. That more I thought about it, the creepier it all seemed. So after I scared myself, I told Mabel all about this and got her freaked too. And so that year we decided we were going to try and get some answers."

"Awwww. So this was your first widdle mystery?" She playfully cooed.

"Actually…." He thought about it. "Probably, yeah. We came up with this whole plan to catch him. After we were put to bed, we snuck back downstairs, set up a tripwire, hid under the couch, annnnd…..that became the Christmas that Dad broke his ankle."

"Wow." Wendy cocked an eyebrow. "Honestly, even for a six year old that's that's some serious paranoia you had going on."

"You can say that again." He drummed his hands on his thighs. "Sooooo…..tell me, what's it feel like to be friends with a crazy person?"

She snorted so loudly it was a miracle she didn't wake anyone in the neighborhood. Dipper joined right in as the two descended into uncontrollable laughter.

"Thanks dude." She fondly yanked down his hat. "Good to know I have someone I can be totally nuts with."

"Anytime." He grinned as he righted his headwear back into place. "So now maybe you can think about everything that's going on with Mom this way; if she's been able to deal with me for the past thirteen years, then she should be able to warm up to you."

"I'll try banking on that for now." Wendy chuckled. She took a good hearty stretch and then checked the time on her phone. "Alright, think us crazies should head back to the house?"

"Well...we don't have to." Even though it was late, Dipper didn't seem too keen on leaving yet. He cleared his throat. "I mean…look, if you feel like you need to stay out a little longer, it's okay. Honestly, I don't mind."

The corners of her lips curled into a knowing grin. She could read her friend like an open book. "You want me to give a little survival archery 101?"

"Could you?!" His excited cry echoed down the dimly lit suburban street, and he clamped his lips tight. Wendy stifled another snort.

"Okay, doofus. Class is officially in session."

"Yes! Wait, so are we...like, actually trying to take anything down?" He asked.

"Nah, nothing's getting hurt. This is all just target practice. Dad would make me do this a ton to work on my aim. The whole point of the exercise is to just get your arrow close to your target without actually hitting it.. He taught us only to shoot something if you plan on eating it later. Otherwise it's just a waste." She lead him back to her perch up in the tree. "Okay, so first thing you need to do is go stake out your spot."

The lanky teen nodded to the garbage can nearby. With all the half eaten food scraps in there, it was clearly the perfect attraction for scavengers. Dipper had been on more than enough monster hunts to guess what was going to come next, and Wendy had accompanied her friend on enough of those hunts to know he didn't need any reminders about what to do. It was now time to lie in wait.

It wasn't long until a raccoon trundled into sight and started sniffing around. Dipper watched silently as his friend nocked an arrow, drew back her arm, and sent it flying. It clanged a half foot away from the fat little thing and it quickly scampered off.

"Whoa." He murmured in awe.

"Okay, your turn." She pressed her bow into his hands. Dipper took a moment to examine it. After tugging the string a few times to test its strength, she passed him an arrow and he tried to copy her form.

"Yeah, that's it. Oooh, check it out!"

The same greedy raccoon waddled back out of the night under the glow of the nearby streetlight. It cautiously sniffed the air, looked around, and began nosing through a half-empty chip bag.

"Try and get it within a foot or two." Wendy whispered. Dipper took a deep breath, drew back, and watched the arrow fly right several yards high above the mark and into the night. Somewhere in the near distance a shrill cry rang out, and a panicked owl flapped overhead in a mad rush to safety.

"Ooohh, mid-air shot! Nice!" She gave him a congratulatory nudge. "Dude, you scared the crap out of it!"

Dipper grinned and whispered, "It'd be better if that's what I was aiming for."

"Here, let me help." Another whittled arrow was taken out and nocked onto the bowstring. Wendy shifted herself until she was right behind him She was barely able to put her arm over his and already she could feel his noodly limb shaking a little under the strain of the bow. "Man, no wonder that last one went crazy…."

"I know, I know." He groaned. They were so close that he could feel her shake under the force of her half-muffled snickering.

"Alright, let's make this one a team-effort." She guided the bow for the two of them. "We'll fire this one off a few feet behind him. Now take a deep breath, and-"

Someone's foot slipped from their awkward perch. Suddenly the both of them tumbled right off together while the arrow soared into the sky in a high arc. Almost as soon as they hit the ground, Dipper sat back up with a gasp.

"Where'd the-"

An overly-decorated home across the street suddenly found itself under attack. There was a flash of spark as a ho-ho-ho-ing electric Santa up on the roof took the crude arrow right to its bearded face. As its voice warped into electronic nightmare gibberish, it wobbled back and forth under the force of the missile. The teens could only watch and hold their breaths until it finally toppled over. As it slid down the roof it snagged several strands of blinking lights, all of which helped it drag down its fellow tacky decorations. An enormous tangle tumbled yard with a thunderous crash that could be heard throughout the entire neighborhood. Panicked and angry voices rang out from the house almost immediately after the holiday avalanche. The siren of a patrolling police car soon blared in the near-distance.

"Oh sh-" Wendy swore under her breath.

"Go, go, _go_!" Dipper grabbed her arm and yanked her back up onto her feet.

Their frantic retreat was nothing but a blur for the both of them. One moment they were sprinting from the scene of the crime, and before they knew it they were taking refuge in the little survival shelter in the Pines' backyard. They spent the next several minutes laying low in tense silence.

"Wow…..your cops are actually like…..good at their jobs." Wendy observed breathlessly, and a smile cracked fast across her face. Even as the adrenaline continue to pump through his veins, Dipper broke out into a grin. The two look to one another, then proceeded to explode with laughter like a pair of lunatics.

"So…this never happened, right?" He chuckled.

She zipped her lip shut, as did he. After they both tossed their imaginary zippers away, Wendy said innocently, "I have no clue what you're talking about. We've been doing nothing but hang out right here allllll night….."

* * *

The last thing Wendy could recall was aimlessly chatting about everything and nothing with her friend as they recovered from their epic retreat. Suddenly she found herself being woken by a deep voice.

"Mornin', Wendy!"

She met the gaze of a creature with big bouncing googly eyes, rosy cheeks and a bald chin-shaped head. The teen flailed her arms in surprise and accidentally whacked her sheltermate. Dipper got up with a startled grunt, took one look at their morning visitor, and rolled his eyes.

"Wendy, Mister Upsidedownington." He yawned as he introduced the two. "Mister Upsidedownington, Wendy."

"Who?" Wendy chortled as she saw who it was poking awkwardly into the shelter.

"Nope, not today! I'm Santa UpsideClausingdown!" Mabel pointed to the little red hat balanced on her chin. "And I'm here to warn you that people who forget to invite others to backyard campouts might end up on the naughty list!"

"Sorry Mabes." Wendy wriggled from her sleeping bag. "We were just hanging out last night and we dozed off. Hope's that's cool."

"Throw in a piggyback to the kitchen and you have yourself an apology accepted!" Mabel smiled as she turned her head right side up.

"You drive a hard bargain." Wendy crawled out and hefted the little brunette up onto her back with ease. When they arrived at the back door, Mr. Pines gave them all a fat welcoming grin as he bustled around the kitchen.

"Mornin'! You're just in time. First batch is almost ready." He nodded to the waffle iron.

In contrast, Mrs. Pines definitely wasn't looking too pleased that her son had spent another night sleeping out in the yard like an animal in a burrow. She frowned at the sticks and leaves tangled in both his and Wendy's hair.

"Did you sleep alright, Dipper?" She exclusively asked him.

"We slept fine, Mom." The boy replied before he gave Wendy a quick wordless nudge. She nodded thankfully for the reminder before taking care to remove her boots. The redhead then gave the matriarch of the family an awkwardly friendly wave before she sat down with the twins at the table. As they quickly filled the kitchen with their chatter and laughter, Mrs. Pines decided to keep a polite silence for now. She took a sip of her tea and switched her thoughts to her itinerary for the day.

Across the kitchen, her husband took a moment to turn the volume up on his tablet. As usual he was listening to a live-stream of the local public radio station, which had some rather unusual news to report on that morning's broadcast.

"...Local police say that there are currently no leads on the incident. Their only clue is a single crude arrow that was found at the scene…."


	5. Chapter 5

It wasn't a specifically Christmas-related activity, but the twins couldn't have their friend travel all the way to their Bay Area hometown and not give her a chance to see the big city nearby. After an early breakfast the trio took public transit out of Piedmont through surrounding Oakland and into gleaming San Francisco. Dipper had put his intense planning skills to good use and had set up a non-stop itinerary that would let them efficiently get the most out of their day trip. It was crammed with sights to see, photo opportunities galore, and a few side trips to some special odds and ends rarely mentioned in the tourist guides. Wendy managed to lose track of how many selfies she had sent Tambry during the whirlwind tour before it was even noon.

When the jam-packed tour came to an end, the lanky redhead found herself wide awake thanks to the pure exhilaration still flooding her system. The twins of course had just as much fun as she had, but they simply couldn't match her tough stamina, and that was how the redhead ended up being drafted into pillow duty on the long bus ride back while Mabel was trying to teach her some carols.

"...Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad, prospero ano y felicidad!" While the little brunette sang loudly and proudly, she motioned for her bemused friend to join her as they reached the chorus "I wanna wish you a merry Christmas! I wanna wish you a merry Christmas! I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heaaarrrrrt! I wanna-"

"Whoa, slow down." Wendy begged. "Can't you start me with something easier?"

"If you can master a bilingual carol, then you can handle all the rest with no problem!" Her little teacher grinned.

"I'm pretty sure that's not happening anytime soon. I already struggle pretty stupid badly in my Spanish classes. Can't we do….I dunno, 'Silver Bells,' or something? That's one of the big ones, isn't it?" She felt a weight suddenly drop ontp her side. She turned to the skinny thirteen-year-old boy now slouching against her. "Dipper? Hey, Dipper?"

Unlike the last two times, he didn't snap back up with a start. His eyelids remained crashed shut as he dozed on her shoulder. The redhead sighed in mock-annoyance. Mabel giggled at her exhausted sibling.

"Aw, he's allllll tuckered out." She teasingly cooed, Her mouth then stretched open wide as a whopping yawn forced its way out of her.

"Tuckered out? Man, more like out cold." Wendy remarked. Working carefully, she first maneuvered her friend so his limp body wouldn't slide off her. She then plucked her former hat from off his head and made an improvised pillow by wedging it between him and her shoulder.

"We can work more on your caroling later." Mabel thoughtfully decided for the sake of her slumbering twin.

"Sounds good." After making sure that the napping Dipper was securely in place, Wendy propped her legs up on the empty seat in front of her. "So what else is going on tonight?"

"Dad's making chili for dinner." The younger girl rubbed her eyes. "But that's about it."

"Christmas chili?" The older teen was only joking, but her friend folded her arms and huffed indignantly.

"We only got to do try that one year when he let me make it with him. But no one else liked the red and green frosting mixed in." She complained. "They couldn't appreciate the spicy-sweet taste."

"Maybe when he's not looking tonight, you can try and slip some in. Any idea yet what we're doing tomorrow?"

Mabel brightened up in a flash."Oh! That's when the tree's finally going up! It's not a complete Christmas if you don't have the tree up! We'll bring Shaggy out of the basement first thing in the morning, and then we'll string on the lights, throw on the tinsel, and then we'll hang as many ornaments-"

"Shaggy? Who's Shaggy?" Wendy managed to wedge a word in. Mabel tittered.

"It's our plastic tree." Noting her friend's confusion, she explained the nickname. "It kind of sheds a lot."

"What the heck? Is it like, made out of hair or something?"

"Noooo. We've just had it forever, so a bunch of its needles always fall off it every year when we bring it up. Mom always gets alllll kinds of stressed about it."

"Oh boy." Wendy rolled her eyes.

"It's actually kind of like a kooky family tradition now. The tree sheds a little more, Mom freaks how it's getting too old, she and Dad agree to try and get a new tree the next year, but then we put it back downstairs after New Years, forget all about it, next holiday season rolls around and thennnn….out comes Shaggy again!" A look of dismay swept the glee off her rosy-cheeked face as something suddenly occurred to her. "Oh, no!"

"What? You okay?"

"No! This is supposed to be your best first Christmas ever! But it can't be the best if we do it with a tree that's balding!" Mabel began furiously brainstorming. "It's okay, we can definitely fix this. We can get a new one first thing tomorrow morning. Or maybe we can go buy one after dinner. There's still going to be plenty of stores open, one of them's gotta have plastic trees, right? Or maybe even before we get home we can try to…."

"Mabes, Mabes, Mabes…." Wendy chuckled. "Chill, okay? If it wasn't for you guys, I'd be trying to spear fish in a half-frozen stream right now. I think you're doing pretty awesome so far with this Christmas thing."

"You really mean it?" Mabel chirped hopefully.

"Totally. You'll figure this thing out just fine."

"Thanks." It was an enormous relief for the little brunette, and she leaned in for a grateful squeeze. After a full thirty seconds passed, Wendy just assumed the notoriously huggy girl was just dragging out a moment like usual. But after a full minute, she checked and finally noticed that Mabel's eyes had sunk completely shut.

"Well, I guess I did just tell you to relax…." She admitted. A sharp turn came, and she quickly draped an arm each around the dozing siblings to brace them in place. With nothing else to do beside anchor her friends and keep an eye out for their stop, Wendy started to do some thinking.

* * *

"...Okay, out you go!"

The nightie-clad teen opened the sliding door for her pet to trundle out into the back yard. Mabel made sure to avert her eyes so Waddles could have some privacy.

"This is what's going to keep happening if you keep drinking your whole water dish right before bed." She reminded him. "You'll just get another fat bladder that can't wait until morning, and then-"

Something popped up over the fence and landed with both a rustle and thump. Before Mabel could react, a shadowy figure hopped into the yard after it. Waddles was immediately on the case, and he raced off with an excited squeal.

"Yeah, get him!" She cheered, but then immediately remembered that she had never taught her pet to attack on command. Or how to attack anyone at all, period. "Oh no! Hold on Waddles, reinforcements are coming!"

The little animal meanwhile raced over to the started intruder and immediately started aggressively rubbing up against her like a chubby pink cat. She tripped and went went sprawling onto her stomach, leaving her exposed for a barrage of piggy snuffles and licks.

" _Ackpth_! No! No! Bad pig! Stoppit!" Wendy sputtered until she could push him away. She wiped furiously at her mouth with the back of her hand. "Sick!"

"Okay stranger, what's the-" Mabel already had her grappling hook out at the ready. But when she saw it was her only her friend she immediately relaxed, as if none of this could possibly be any more normal. "Oh! Hey there, Wendy!"

At first older teen just stared wordlessly. She was literally unable to believe her luck. Caught twice in as many nights?

"Do twins have to do like, everything in pairs?" She exclaimed in disbelief.

"Oooh! You mean like you and Dipper's hunting thingy last night?" During the bus ride into the city, Mabel had been regaled in detail with the tale of her twin and friend's shenanigans the night before. She began bouncing on her toes in joyful anticipation. "Wooooo! Now it's Mabel's turn for a surprise midnight adventure!"

"More like surprise midnight spoiler." Wendy cracked awkwardly.

"Huh? What do you mean? What is this biz, anyway?" Mabel got a look the teen's delivery. When she realized it was a small evergreen tree, her eyes lit up the night like two stars. "Whoa! Is that a….a…."

The little teen clapped her hands tightly over her mouth with muffled squeal. "Omigosh! You….you…."

"Well, you said your tree was getting crazy old. Besides, with all the junk you've been doing for me while I've been here, I thought I might return at least one favor." Wendy explained bluntly. "You weren't supposed to find out until tomorrow morning with everyone else, though…..but….um…"

She shrugged. "Surprise?"

"Wow! Oh, WOW! WOW! Oh wow, oh wow, wow! Wendy, you...you got us a real live Christmas treeeeee!" Mabel clapped her cheeks and broke out into a delighted dance.

"Glad you like it." The older teen grinned. "Think your folks will like it too?"

"What? Yes! A million times yes! Of course they're gonna love it!" Mabel bubbled back. "This is seriously the best most thoughtful thing ever!"

This was all music to Wendy's ears. After all the horrible awkwardness of the past few days, it looked like she was finally on the road to getting into some good graces. At least that's the way it looked until Mabel dropped the fateful question.

"How'd you even get this? Where'd you find a lot that was open this late?"

"...A what?" Wendy had no idea what she was talking about.

"The tree lot! The one you bought the tree at!" The young girl pranced about as her imagination raced. "Oooh! Oooh, oooh, ooohh! Is it like, some super secret mobile tree lot that moves around the city late at night? Did you have to track it down? Did they need a password for you to get in? Did you use some secret lumberjack tree code to get a discount?"

"Wait, wait, hang on. You're actually supposed to _buy_ these?" All Wendy knew was that around Christmas people went out and "got" trees. She literally couldn't wrap her head around the concept of actually shelling out money for one. All her life, if you wanted a tree you just took an axe or a saw, walked twenty feet out of the house and got right to chopping. Both girls were now shooting each other puzzled looks.

"Well…..yeah." Mabel finally noticed the familiar hatchet tucked in the back of the lumberjill's belt. Wendy wordlessly glanced at her successful haul, and finally it clicked. She would have started cursing like a sailor right then and there had not her young friend been standing no more than three feet away. Instead she vented her dismay with an epic groan of despair.

"Oooohhhh, man."

"So…..you didn't buy it?" The little brunette innocently checked. The girl took a closer look at the tree and answered her own question when she saw all the fresh hack marks at the bottom of the trunk.

"No, I found it near the edge of someone's yard. About like, three blocks that way." Wendy pointed. "I just thought that...wait, so there's definitely like, no public trees or anything like that around here?"

"Uh, for Christmas? Not that I know of." Mabel answered, and Wendy's face fell.

"Ooooohhhh crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…"

"What's wrong?" The smaller teen followed along while the older girl started to frantically pace around.

"...Crap, crap, crap. We need need to find a dumpster. or something. Like, now." Wendy hastily decided.

"Wait! So this isn't going to be our tree?" Mabel sounded deeply disappointed. "Why not? It's going to be amazing holiday surprise for the rest of the family! They'll all wake up, come downstairs and see it standing there in the metal stand thingy, all real and fresh and beautiful and one million percent ready for some serious decorating!"

"Are we going to decorate it before or after your mom flips out?" Wendy asked. Mabel immediately stopped and grimaced. She of course knew that her parent and friend weren't exactly getting along well, to say the very least.

"Ummmm….she's….uh….she's still just getting used to you. That's all." The forever-positive little brunette generously suggested. "And your present here should help smooth things over a little!"

"Pffft! She's still just barely putting up with me." Wendy tugged anxiously at her scarlet locks. "And now she's going to take one look at the tree, put two and two together and….gah!"

She hurled her arms up into the air with frustration. The teen was now in rare anxious form. It wasn't as if anyone could blame her, though. Literally the last thing she wanted to do was inject a wave of fresh tension into the Pines home. However, Mabel Pines was not going to stand idly by and watch her friend freak out over her perfectly good intentions.

"Wait! Just hold the phone here, Wen-Wen!" Mabel tugged on her shirt. "It's going to be okay! We can make this work!"

"Yeah, just as long as we can find a place to hide the evidence." Wendy pessimistically shot back.

"Oh pfffft! We can totally keep the tree! And we can still make you look good too! It's not impossible. It won't even be that hard! Mom and Dad just….. don't have to know the full story." Mabel mischievously suggested.

Wendy stopped and stared. When she realized where the other girl was getting at, she soon cracked a hopeful grin.

"I thought you were all about telling the truth." The redhead wryly observed.

"I can make little exceptions now and then." Mabel was more than happy to confess. "It's like Dipper says; it's fine as long as it's for the greater good."

"That's some pretty noble junk there, Mabes."

"Thanks! But also….doing things more in the Wendy Way is also usually much more fun." She hugged her pig while she made her gleeful confession. Wendy broke out with a full-fledged cackle as she tousled her friend's hair.

"Okay, now that's what I'm talkin' about."

* * *

Mrs. Pines received a sizable surprise the very next morning when went to go check what the weather was like outside.

"Uhhhhh….honey?" She immediately called for her husband. "Could you come here? Please?"

"Yeah?" he sauntered out from the kitchen with steaming mug of coffee in hand.

"Do you know anything about this?" She pointed to the neatly tied up tree sitting right there on their front step.

"Huh…..can't say that I do." He replied with a baffled shrug.

The kids followed out to see what all the hubbub was about. Still spooning down a bowl of cereal, Wendy glanced outside and grinned.

"Sweet! Right on time."

"What? Wait, you did this, Wendy?" Mr. Pines asked.

"Uh-huh. Surprise." She casually announced before she took another bite of her breakfast.

"Whoa. Wendy, you got us a-" Dipper was loudly interrupted by his sister.

"OMIGOSH!" Mabel gasped before launching into a convincing fit of joy. "A tree! A REAL tree!" She bounced about for a few moments before she started petting its needle-covered branches. "The realest tree ever!"

"Yeah. I mean, that's a major part of the whole Christmas thing, right?" The redhead asked innocently. "You go get a tree and decorate it?"

"Oh my." Mr. Pines was deeply touched by their guest's generosity. "I don't know what to say."

His wife did. After all, if there was one thing her kids had made clear, it was that their friend from up north came from a long line of rough-and-tumble lumberjacks. And since a lumberjack's daughter just made a tree show up on her front step, immediate suspicion seemed like a more than perfectly reasonable response.

"So, Wendy….where exactly did you get this from?" She was quick to inquire.

"Ordered it online. It was pretty easy. And cheap, too." The teen coolly explained.

"Online? Okay….so….who exactly did you order it from?" She kept up the gentle interrogation.

"Oh, you can give 'em a call if you like. It's totally legit." Wendy nodded to the tree, and Mrs. Pines noticed a piece of paper attached to one of the branches. While she distractedly fished it out, Mabel took out her phone speedily fired off a text.

"Tree-Cycle?" The woman read the brightly colored label. It came complete with phone number, corporate email, and a smiling, sunglasses-wearing evergreen mascot that flashed a friendly thumbs up with a branchy hand. She looked back to the grinning ginger teen and decided to take out her phone and give a call right then and there.

"Lyn? What are you-".

"Shhh." She hushed her husband as it rang.

At this point Dipper's intuition told him something was definitely going on. He passed his sister and friend an inquisitive glance and the two flashed back sneaky smiles.

"Hello, welcome to Tree-Cycle. How can I help you?" Someone answered on the other end after the third ring.

"Hi there. My name is Lynda Pines, and I'm calling because I-"

"Oh, Mrs. Pines! Good morning!" She was cheerily greeted. "Did your tree arrive yet? We had your family down for overnight shipping and early-morning drop-off."

"Um," She honestly wasn't expecting this to be a real operation, much less one that appeared to be so professionally managed. "Well, yes it did-"

"Great! Just to make sure, could you please give us the confirmation number on your tree?"

"Uuuuhhhhhh…." She looked blankly at the paper until her daughter helpfully turned it around to reveal a number on the back. "It's, um...hold on….one three one three one five-"

"Thank you! It sounds like you're all set!" He happily confirmed. "Can I help you with anything else this morning?"

"Uh…." She paused and put the customer service representative on speakerphone so her husband could listen in. "This is all….uh, pretty new to me, to be honest. Would you mind telling me who you people are, exactly?"

"Not at all! We're Tree-cycle. We're like, the number one reused tree nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest. We take trees of all shapes and sizes that have fallen down in storms and accidents for donation and affordable resell."

"Oh….uh, okay then. Sounds like a good cause, actually. Um….thanks you for-"

"Would you like to know even more about our seasonal recycled Christmas tree program? It sounds like you're interested!"

"No thank you, I just-" But she didn't even get a chance to politely refuse when cheery elevator-style music began playing, followed shortly by a peppy-sounding woman.

"Hello there! Holiday Operations Department, how may I help you?"

Mrs. Pines hastily hung up. Wendy and Mabel shared a discreet fist bump before the woman cleared her throat and turned to the redheaded teen.

"Well then. Uh, thank you for the…..the very nice surprise, Wendy." She politely bade her guest. While the twins chomped down hard on their lips to keep from laughing, Wendy kept up the convincing act.

"Oh, don't mention it." She shot her partner-in-crime a fat smile. "Trust me, it was no problem at all…"

* * *

Back up north in the small town of Gravity Falls, the entire staff of "Tree-Cycle" waited for word from Piedmont.

"Anything yet?" Soos nervously drummed his fingers on his little keyboard. His accomplice nudged his mug of cocoa across the coffee table closer towards him.

"Just relax. It's only been a couple minutes." Melody's phone suddenly chimed to announce an incoming text from Mabel. She read the message, then broke out into a triumphant grin as she showed it off. "Looks like they're in the clear!"

Soos was overwhelmed with relief. Soon his girlfriend was bent over laughing as he lumbered around his living room and created a one-man victory party. After celebrating like this for nearly an entire minute straight, he finally stopped to catch his breath and top off the spectacle celebration with a final jubilant fist pump.

"Nailed it."


	6. Chapter 6

"Are we there now?"

"Not yet."

Thanks to the blindfold wrapped around her eyes, Wendy was forced to rely on Dipper as he held her wrist and guided her through the house. On and on they went, taking countless twists and turns. It wasn't too long before she figured out what was going on.

"Okay, either you quit it with all the circles or I'm tearing this thing off." She gave him an ultimatum.

"Quit what?" Dipper betrayed himself with a half-stifled chuckle. She pulled her hand free and groped about until she was able to give him a push.

"C'mon dude, I know your house isn't this big. Knock it off with all the circles"

"Okay okay. Hold on." Dipper laughed. Their pathway felt much more straightforward now, and she soon heard the distinct creak of a door. "Careful, stairs."

With one hand holding his skinny wrist and the other clutching a bannister, the older teen had her friend slowly lead her down step by step until he brought them to a stop.

"Okay, we're here!"

She raised the blindfold to find herself standing halfway down the basement stairs with a sea of soft white waiting for them below. All the boxes and other assorted junk had been shoved up against the walls, and not a single square inch of the actual floor could be seen.

"What is this?" She descended the last few steps and ran her hand through the indoor pool of white packing peanuts. Dipper hopped off the stairs and sprayed her with his cushy landing.

"It's-"

He didn't see the small flash of brown cruising towards him until it was too late. His sister leapt out from the styrofoam with a roar.

"Abominable Snow-Mabel! RAAAHHHH!" She cried before dragging him down. Fluffy white sprayed all about as the siblings tousled beneath the surface. Dipper eventually reemerged with a gasp. Mabel as usual was nothing but smiles as she popped up and spread her sweater-sleeved arms wide, "Welcome to your winter wonderland!"

"My what?" the teen laughed.

"Remember, this is supposed to be your best Christmas! And it definitely can't be the best Christmas if it's not a white Christmas!" The girl bubbled matter-of-factly.

"And snow's not something we get a lot of around here….." Dipper understated. "Soooo….."

"Voila! A snowy day, just for you!" His sister said with a flourish.

"Where did you even get all of this?" Wendy gazed over the thoroughly covered floor.

"Oooooh, easy! I got some friends at the arts and crafts shop that have been saving this stuff up for me." Mabel put on a proud grin. "And we even have enough for an…...INDOOR BLIZZARD! _WHOOOOSH_!"

The little teen reached for a nearby rope and tugged. A strategically placed bag hanging from the rafters opened up and dumped a sudden hail of packing material on the redhead.

Wendy burst out cackling as she dived into the "snow" without a second thought. The three teens romped about like they were a bunch of seven-year-olds. After a fierce "snowball" fight, the trio collapsed for a breather.

"Pretty good, huh?" Mabel popped up beside their friend with a splash of packing peanuts.

"Yeah, as far as substitutes go, this is a pretty sweet." Wendy gently threw a handful into the girl's toothy-grinned face. "Now if only we could find a way to get a hill and a sled in here, then we'd be totally set."

"Oh, easy! We could ride the laundry basket down the stairs!" The little brunette immediately suggested. Wendy looked at the extremely short distance between the bottom of the staircase and the cement basement wall and shook her head. That seemed a little risky even for her.

"As much as I totally dig the idea, there's no way we wouldn't all end up with concussions." She then noticed that Dipper had gone silent, meaning he was now deep in thought.

"What's on your mind?" She splashed him.

"There might not be any snow outside, but…." He pondered half-out loud as tried to think of a solution for his friend. "But maybe we can still try something out there."

"Dude, are you coming up with one of your weird overcomplicated plans again?" Wendy pried.

"Yeah he is!" Mabel sang knowingly.

Dipper sank a few inches down into their improvised "snow" and glanced sheepishly to Wendy. "Well….you sound like you really want to go sledding."

"Just making sure." She grinned while she half crawled, half swam over. "Okay, I'm all ears..."

* * *

"...All right, let's see if I can...okay, you see me now?" A gruff voice asked from the other end of the video chat.

"Kind of." Mr. Pines chuckled at the image of the bulbous nose that was now displaying on his tablet screen. He heard a sigh come from behind Stan.

"Don't get so close, remember? Here, let me..." The image shifted as Ford positioned his brother's face further from the camera

"Eh? Oh, there we go. I can never get the hang of this stupid..." Stan muttered some very unkind things under his breath about today's technology. "Anyways, so how are the little gremlins doing?"

"They're great! Well, besides the mess they just left in the basement." He smiled and shook his head at his children's latest antic. "If we're lucky they'll get that all cleaned up by New Year's."

"Sounds about right. Either of them around to say hi to their grunkles?"

"Actually they're out playing with Wendy right now."

"Ah, I'll talk to 'em later. So what's it been like having her down there, anyway?" The old man grinned.

"She's making things interesting this year, I can tell you that." Mr. Pines chuckled.

"Wendy is...something." His wife put it as diplomatically as she could, and only after a long pause. Mrs. Pines continued to bustle about the kitchen while her husband sat at the table.

"Ah c'mon Lyn, what's the big screamin' deal?" Stan scoffed at her attitude. "I bet Dipper and Mabel are having the time of their lives. Remember what I told you? It'd really make the kids' holiday to have her there for the-"

"Stan?" A thickly winter-bundled Soos trundled into the background. "The maze is all shoveled out!"

"Hold on a sec." Stan motioned to the camera. "Good. Now go give it a good spray with the hose. The bottom of the path, the sides, everything.."

"What? Oh for God's sake." His twin protested. "Why?"

"What? It's not an ice maze without the ice."

"Ice maze for what?" It was pretty clear Ford didn't like where this was going.

"Y'know. For like, family holiday fun, and stuff. We gotta find a way to keep at least a little bit of cash flowing during the off-season."

"What? Stanley, no." The video chat was temporarily forgotten as the elderly twins started arguing with each other.

"Aw c'mon!"

"You can't be serious."

"It's just a little extra income!" Stan attempted to downplay his latest scheme. "Nothing wrong with that, right?"

"We're not doing this. The first person who steps in there is going to immediately break an ankle." His brother warned him.

"Not with me supervising, they won't!" Soos vowed. "I'll watch all those mazers like a hawk! Like a….wait, hold on. Is that even a word? Mazers? Huh, doesn't sound right….what else would you call someone who goes inside a-"

"Wait." Recognition hit Mrs. Pines with the force of a runaway freight train. She raced across the kitchen and looked over her husband's shoulder. "I...I know that voice!"

"Huh?" Stan turned back to his camera. "What? You mean Soos?"

"What's going on?" The handyman asked.

"Yes! I definitely know that voice!" She proclaimed. "I was talking to you just this morning, wasn't I?"

"Uuuhhh….IIIIIII…...ummm….I have no idea what you're talking about." Soos forced his tone down several octaves to the deepest bass possible. "I, um….I'm just talking in my normal voice….which is this. This voice here. Yup, this definitely what I sound like allllll the time, especially when I'm talking with anyone on the phone….."

It was too late. She was already storming out of the kitchen, all while yelling so loudly that even everyone back in the Mystery Shack winced.

"I KNEW IT!"

* * *

It wasn't exactly a marvel of engineering. But Dipper's creation was still a pretty clever set-up nevertheless. All he had to do was take the old red wagon that still lived in a far corner of the garage (even though neither of the twin had touched it since they were eight) remove its wheels, and attach them to the plastic green sled they had bought for that time when their parents took them to a ski resort. When he was finished, they had a pretty decent looking warm-weather sled.

Even better, the thing actually worked. Or at least it worked the first time they took it up the largest hill they could find in walking distance. After the wild, bumpy ride down the grassy slope, the makeshift vehicle finally slid to a halt.

"Yes! YES!" Wendy let out an exhilarated cheer. "Oh my God, yes! That ruled!"

"Yes! That...actually worked!" Dipper laughed in relief.

"Whoooo! Take that, temperate California climate!" Mabel triumphantly mocked their snow-less surroundings with a little dance. "Gonna stop us from having winter holiday fun? Nuh-uh! Not today!"

"All right, round two, let's go!" As soon as Wendy picked the altered sled back up she was suddenly struck with inspiration. "Wait! Hold on!"

She put it back down and began excitedly scouting up and down the hill.

"What are you looking for?" Dipper asked.

"This!" Wendy tapped a large hump of earth with her foot. "Perfect ramp, right here!"

The teen raced back, picked the sled back up in one fluid movement and headed up towards the top of the hill again. "C'mon! We're getting some serious air this time!"

The twins cheered as they followed their friend without a second though. Thirty seconds later, no one was doing any cheering as they lay about in a mess near the bottom of the hill. Wendy was in such a daze from the massive wipeout that it took her a couples seconds until she could peel herself up off the ground.

"Guys?"

"Whooo!" Mabel bounced to her feet. "Best Christmas EVER!"

Alright, so at least half her dorks were good. She grinned and check up on the other sibling. "Dipper? You okay?"

The boy bit down hard on his lip as he sat up clenching his shoulder. "Ahhh….my….m-my arm…."

Recalling the trick he pulled on her a day ago, Wendy smirked and shook her head. "Nice try, dude. But you have to do better than that-"

"DIPPER!" As his twin, Mabel could automatically see at least a half-dozen signs that something was genuinely wrong. She was at her brother's side in a flash. Wendy needed another moment or two, but she finally noticed that his left arm was dangling limply as a piece of rope by his side. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Oh man, oh man, oooohhhh man..." She dashed over and got down on one knee. "Here, let me have a look."

Dipper winced as she gently took his arm and examined it closely. Mabel had already taken out her phone, dialed 91 and was nervously hovering her finger over the button for the last 1.

But after performing her quick checkover, Wendy was incredibly relieved to find that it wasn't nearly as bad as she had feared. In fact, she'd seen this injury a couple times in her own family over the years thanks to constant daily roughhousing (plus several particularly nasty falls out of various trees). "It's okay, nothing's broken. You just got a dislocation."

Her friend felt a pang of panic as he pictured himself in a doctor's office struggling to explain what happened to his parents. "So do I need to go to-"

"Nope. It doesn't look bad, so we should be good. Hold on a sec."

Dipper temporarily forgot about the pain in his arm when the older teen unbuckled her belt and yanked it off in one tug. His eyes widened as he asked distractedly, "Uhhh...what are you doing?"

Wendy folded it over twice and took shoved it right into his mouth without any warning. "Here, bite down on this."

"Huh? Bith the belth?" He repeated bemusedly.

"Uh huh. Trust me, that's gonna help big time. Mabel, can you grab his hand?"

The little brunette and her brother shot each other equally confused looks, but Mabel did as asked. After all, it sounded like the redhead knew what she was doing. Wendy looked into her friend's eyes, grasped his shoulder and arm and nodded reassuringly. Dipper finally figured out what was about to happen. He braced himself, shut his eyes tightly and nodded to let her know he was as ready as he was ever going to be.

"We'll do this on three. Ready? Okay...one...two...three!"

Mabel let out a squeaky yelp. It felt like her brother was squeezing her fingers with the force of a vise. Meanwhile Dipper sank his teeth deep into the leather as Wendy forced everything back into place (or at least that's what he hoped was happening). Thankfully the sharp pain lasted for only a few moments before the older teen let go. She wiped her brow, then delicately patted around his shoulder to make sure that everything was where it should be.

"Okay….looks like we got it. Can you try and move it for me now?" She asked.

Dipper tried his best to ignore the dull throb that now took over his arm as he followed her directions. To his amazement, he could move his arm again just fine. In spite of all the aches currently wracking his limb, it was otherwise as perfectly functional as ever.

"Whoaaa." Mabel gasped.

"How you feel?" Wendy's emerald eyes were still full of lingering worry. Dipper spat out the belt.

"...Ouch." He groaned. His friend gawked at him in disbelief for a second before she exploded laughter.

"That was nuts!"

"Yeah." He marveled as he moved his arm about. "You just...put it right back in."

"That? That's nothing. I've had to do that a couple times with my brothers." She deflected the comment. "I'm talking about you, man~"

"Wait, really?" Dipper couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah! Your arm basically fell out! And now you're barely acting like it's any big hurt-y thingy deal at all!" Mabel exclaimed in wide-eyed amazement.

"I wouldn't say it wasn't a big deal." He grimaced. "I mean, it feels pretty sore right now."

Wendy snorted and shook her head. "Dude, just listen to yourself. Pretty sore? That's it? My brothers were all in tears the first time my dad had to pop their arms back into place. All three of them, every time, with actual tears like, pouring down their faces. And I completely freaked out the first time it happened to me I actually ran around screaming my head off until anyone could make me stand still. But you? Man!"

With all the praise that was now being earnestly piled high on him, Dipper allowed himself to take some pride in his injury.

"I...I did handle that pretty well, didn't I?" He understated with a small grin.

"Pretty well? You handled that like a total boss!" Wendy proudly congratulated him.

"All hail Dipper, the Unbreakable Nerd!" Mabel triumphantly whooped.

"Well, I've had to deal with a lot worse than….." Now that his ego had been puffed up, he tried to downplay everything with a cool shrug. That of course instantly proved to be a bad idea, and his shoulder immediately flared up with fresh discomfort. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow…."

"It's okay." Wendy laughed again. "You already won the Tough Guy Award for today."

"Thanks." He smiled weakly she gently helped set him up on his feet. "So, think we're done with bad ideas for now?"

The older teen looked over the two plastic chunks that used to be the sled. Each one was separated by a fair distance thanks to magnitude of their crash. "Yeah, I'd say so."

Besides the fact that their ride was trashed beyond repair, the sun setting fast in the distance. Another relatively short winter day was coming to a fast close.

"Alright, time to head back home! It's Cookies-and-Christmas-Movies O'Clock!" Mabel clapped her hands and proclaimed. The others of course find anything to argue with that. They quickly located a public garbage can to deposit all evidence of the day's adventure. The return walk was nice and uneventful, excluding the fact that Dipper had to spurn several offers from both his sister and friend for a public piggyback ride the rest of the way back (Mabel even got him halfway on her back before he struggled free).

"So you need an ice pack, bro-bro?" His sister checked as they entered the house.

"That would be nice." He flexed his shoulder and winced again.

"You go get comfortable, Iron Man." Wendy patted his back. "We got this-"

"WENDY!" An angry cry rang out. All three froze up like deer in headlights as Mrs. Pines stormed into the front hallway.

"What?" Wendy knelt down and began unlacing her boots. "Okay, okay, sorry! I'm taking them off, see?"

Unfortunately, judging by the woman's utterly livid expression this obviously had nothing to do with tracking in muck. This looked bad. Very, very, very bad. The redhead's mind began racing a hundred miles an hour as she and the twins gazed into the face of anger itself. What could this be? The late night hunting practice? No, her bow was now just a bunch of broken pieces of wood scattered in the backyard, no way she'd find out about that. The shelter? Was she upset that it hadn't been taken down yet?

Wendy didn't have to wonder for too long. The furious mother reached behind her back and brought out a familiar-looking hatchet.

"Explain this." Mrs. Pines growled. " _Now_."


	7. Chapter 7

Time seemed to freeze. The infuriated mother's stare bore deep into the fifteen-year-old.

"Well? Explain this." She repeated herself. However, she wasn't the only one who wanted some answers.

"Where did you get that?" Wendy demanded.

"Under the bed. Right where you were hiding it." Mrs. Pines shot back accusingly. The teen's temper immediately flared.

"Ohhh, nice. Real nice. Is it just me, or do you treat all your guests this well?" The teen instinctively returned fire with a sarcastic reply.

"You brought an axe! Into my house!" The outraged mother yelled back so fiercely that the girl flinched. Attitude clearly wasn't going to do her any favors here. This was officially a worst-case scenario that she now had on her hands.

"Okay, okay, okay, yeah that's mine!" Wendy hurriedly admitted. "But just relax, okay? Look, I'm sorry if it freaked you out. But it wasn't like I was walking around the house and swinging it everywhere. See, it's got its sheath on and everything!"

"But it's still an axe inside my house!" Mrs. Pines emphasized. "Why would you even bring this here?"

"I like having it with me just in case." She spoke nothing but the honest truth. For her it made perfect sense considering the countless times it had come in handy for her in the past. But it instantly became clear that this was not an acceptable answer.

"Just in case for what? For when you decide you want to go and steal something?" Mrs. Pines demanded. Wendy could feel her heart sink into her chest as she watched the furious parent point into the living room and at the decorated tree standing in it. "I know out how you really got that. Don't deny it."

"I was only trying to help you guys out! Mabel said that you really needed a new tree! And she was totally right, I looked at your old one in the basement-"

"And then you decided to go out and just steal one?" The mother crossly interrupted.

"I'm sorry! I seriously didn't mean to, I swear! I didn't know how the whole thing worked. I didn't think you people actually had to like, go out and buy a tree somewhere!" Even as she was busy defending herself, the whole concept still sounded bizarre to her.

"What? How...how in the world do you not know that?" Mrs. Pines asked incredulously.

The teen's frustration spiked. "Because I'm new to most of this! It's kind of the whole point of having me over, remember? Look, there's a lot of stuff around here that I don't get!"

"Just because you don't know what's going on doesn't mean you can go ahead and do what you think is…." It was only then that she noticed that all three teens were noticeably scratched and battered from their sledding incident. "Oh my God, just look at you all! What happened? Where were you just now?"

"We were just messing around. We're fine." Wendy replied vaguely. The last thing she needed was more fuel on the fire.

"Messing around? It looks like you got everyone caught up in a brawl! Can you get through one day without dragging my kids into some kind of trouble?" She shook her head. "Just what is wrong with you?"

"What, you want me to come out and just say it? Fine! I was raised in the woods! Literally right in the middle of the woods! Okay?" Wendy couldn't help but let her temper flare again. "That's where I come from, and that's the kind of life that passes for my normal! Happy now?"

"No, of course I'm not happy! There's huge difference between adjusting to someplace new and everything that you've been….I mean, where do I even start? Scaring me half to death with that shelter outside…"

"Mom!" Dipper tried to desperately cut in, but his call went ignored. The list of wrongdoings continued.

"...Stealing an entire tree from someone's yard….."

"I told you, I didn't mean to! I legit didn't know!" Wendy tried to remind her. "Why would anyone have to go and actually buy a tree?"

"...Lying right to my face, bringing weapons into this house..."

"Mom?" Now Mabel attempted to interrupt. "Mom!"

"...Alerting the police to my home…."

"I get it, okay?!" Wendy began to involuntarily shout. "I know, I know, I've made a bunch of things totally weird here! But I haven't been trying to make things crazy on purpose! I'm only trying to do this whole holiday thing-"

"I knew things would be different with you, but I never imagined that it'd be anything like this! It's just been-"

"I'm sorry!" Wendy desperately tried to get in another apology before she was cut off.

"It's just been nothing but nonstop madness with you since the very start! I just...I don't even know how to..." Mrs. Pines was now so hopelessly wound up that she couldn't even speak for a few moments. She just didn't understand. It was like this girl had come from a different planet. The frazzled parent clenched her fists and exclaimed, "What on earth did your mother do to you?"

There was a long pause before the stunned teen murmured back, "...W-what?"

"What happened? I don't understand it! I literally cannot understand it! How on earth did your mother raise you to end up with...with all this!?" She gestured to the startled teenager. "With you? How?"

Wendy looked like she had just been punched in the stomach. The tears were already prickling up in her eyes when she hurriedly headed straight out the door and closed it behind her with a loud slam.

"Wendy, wait!" Dipper tried to follow, but his mother grabbed him by the arm. His injured shoulder twinged with pain, but he kept himself from wincing.

"You two and I need to have a talk. Now."And as she pulled her children over to her, she noted their fresh scratches with a grim sake of her head. "Just look at you two. What did she rope you into this time?"

"Nothing!" Dipper broke away from her grasp and whirled around. "It was all my idea!"

She just sighed exasperatedly. "The things she makes you do when she's around-"

"Forget about it! We're all just fine!" Dipper snapped. He had much bigger fish to fry than some outdoor fun gone slightly wrong. "Mom, how…how could you say any of that to her?"

"A-HEM." She pointed to the hatchet now resting on the foot of the stairs.

"She knows how to handle an ax. She's known how to handle one for ages!" Her son said defensively. "Her dad's a lumberjack! We told you this!"

"And that's exactly one of the things I was worried about!" She shot back. "I knew something like this was going to happen!"

"Mom-"

"How can I possibly be okay with someone who grew up in a household where it's perfectly normal to carry sharp tools everywhere? Or doesn't mind bringing along a blade around when she visits others? Or is just fine living outside every now and then? Or...or...doing whatever it was that happened when you were hanging up the lights? And by the way, I do not buy that 'sliding' story at all."

" That's just who she is! Wendy's not like other people!" Dipper didn't hesitate to admit. "But you know what? That's what makes her great!"

"Dipper!" She raised her voice, but the young teen wouldn't back down.

"You'll never be able to know anyone out there like Wendy. Ever! But you haven't actually tried to get to know her. You haven't tried at all! You've barely given her a chance for anything ever since she got here!" Dipper boldly accused her.

His mother frowned in annoyance. Even since this past summer, her boy had been talking back a lot more than he used to, which was barely at all. Both of her twins had been doing this, actually, and she now felt that she had a pretty good idea about who played a big role behind the change.

"Don't take that tone with me, young man. And Wendy has been trouble from since the moment that she's walked into this...no, it's actually been even longer than that. But especially since she's been here with us-"

Mabel couldn't bear to hear anymore. She blurted out, "But Dipper's right!"

And now was two-on-one. Great. Just great. Mrs. Pines sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Mabel, I-"

"No, he's right! Mom, this is supposed to be her first real Christmas! It's supposed to be something special! And Wendy's been really trying to figure all this stuff out! She knows she's made it crazy-awkward, but she's been working to fix that! That's why she got us a real tree this year, she was only trying to help us out! But while she's been doing all that, you haven't done anything to help give her a good holiday! You've just been so...so…" Mabel closed her eyes and unhappily blurted out, "You've been so MEAN to her!"

This second accusation took their mother completely off guard. "I...I...no, I haven't been...I've only been looking out for you two! You know that! And Wendy's been-"

"But you've been going so overboard that you haven't done anything to make Wendy feel welcome! At all!" Dipper spoke up. "All you've done is freak out on her or give her a cold shoulder!"

"I've only been making sure that you're both alright." She reiterated. "Wendy's made it hard-"

"But Wendy knows that it's been hard with her around." He revealed. "And she's been trying to make things easier. Didn't you hear Wendy just a minute ago? She was trying to say she was sorry-"

"Some try! She wouldn't even let me talk to her anymore. She just ran out without-"

"Of course she did! After everything you've already put her through you had to say all that stuff! And worst of all, you had to go and bring up her mom!" He fumed. Of all the injustices, that one was hands-down the very worst.

"I was only-"

"Her mom!" He repeated with a rarely-seen ferocity. "Seriously, why would you even say that?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Their mother genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. Mabel however quickly realized that their parent was missing out on a crucial detail.

"Dipper!" She gasped and tugged her brother's vest. Her twin's temper quickly started to cool as he read her expression with dismay. With all they had gushed about their friend for the last few months, not once had they mentioned one very particular detail about Wendy's life. Now to be perfectly fair, it wasn't exactly the kind of thing that the older teen would want them sharing without hesitation. Still, it probably would have helped things a lot just now had their parent been more in the know.

The twins shared a quick couple wordless looks. Dipper gestured that he'd take on the task of breaking the awkward truth. Their mother meanwhile watched on confusedly as he cleared his throat. "Uh….Wendy doesn't have a mom."

"Wait...what?" Mrs. Pines exclaimed with shock.

"She doesn't have a mom." Dipper softly repeated. A brief by uncomfortably painful silence swept the room. The boy needed a few moments, but he eventually worked up the courage to admit, "Sorry...we should have told you."

"Oh my...did she pass away?"

"No Her mom left the family a couple of years ago. Wendy still has her dad and her brothers, but..." Mabel fidgeted with the hem of her sweater. "It's not easy."

"It really gets to her sometimes. Especially with everything she has to do to help take care of her family." Dipper understated.

Their mother had to take a seat on the stairs. It didn't take long until guilt came flooding over her. She couldn't help herself. She was a parent, after all, and so her heart automatically went out to the motherless fifteen-year-old. She couldn't even begin imagine the agony her own children would have to go through if either she or their father suddenly left them, nor did she even want to. Wendy however apparently knew that pain all too well. And she had just accidentally rubbed salt in a wound that the poor girl had been carrying for God only knew how long.

Yikes.

"I….I….." She stammered. Mabel plodded over and gently rested one of her little doll hands on her knee until the woman found her voice again. "I….oh my God. I'm sorry, I didn't…."

"That was our fault. We never told you." Her son guiltily reminded her.

Now that she wasn't letting stress get in the way for the first time all week, she actually had a chance to look back at the past few days from a different perspective. And she wasn't happy at all with what she saw.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She repeated herself with a heavy sigh. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

"But we never told you about-" A slightly confused Dipper tried to remind her again.

"No, not that. Everything. I just….I've only been trying to make sure you two are okay," She said yet again, and neither twin protested. They could see that their mother was being completely honest. "Wendy….she just makes me so nervous when she's with you."

"But why?" Her son asked. He couldn't think of anyone else who could help put him more at ease (excluding the butterflies she still put in his stomach every now and then).

"Well, the things she gets you into are….they can be a little-"

"A little what? We've only been having fun!" Mabel interrupted. "That's all it is. Fun! And a lot of it is just like the kind of stuff we did up in Gravity Falls!"

"That's what I thought. And while it might be nothing but fun for you, for me it's like…." Mrs. Pines took a deep breath. Her daughter cocked her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Ever since you both came back from the summer, things have felt…different with you two. t's almost felt like...like…." As much as she hated to say it, she managed to admit, "It's like you've both become a little….wilder.."

Dipper and Mabel exchanged surprised looks. This was all news to them.

"Really?" Mabel chirped incredulously.

"You know, with the way you've been acting, and with some of the things you've gotten yourselves….especially with that business at school a few months ago….I've been worried. And when you two began telling me more and more about Wendy, I started getting my suspicions. And after seeing everything you've gotten up to since she's been here, I thought I finally figured out. I thought I finally knew who's the one who's been making you both so…..you know."

An awkward silence settled on the mother and her children.

"But….I don't think Wendy makes us crazier or anything." Dipper gently interjected. "I mean, at least it's not supposed to be like that. I think she makes us….she makes us….."

"Better!" Mabel finished for him, and he flashed his sister a thankful smile.

"Better?" Their mother curiously repeated.

"Yeah." Dipper nodded in full agreement. "She always has. Even at the start of the summer when she barely knew us, Wendy's never treated us like just a couple of little kids or anything like that. She's always pushing us to try new things, and it's not just because she doesn't have anything better to do. It's because…..it's because she believes that we can handle it, whatever it is. She always does, no matter what."

"But what happens when there's trouble?" She couldn't help but ask. Her normally shy, soft-spoken little introvert of a son was more than happy to answer.

"Then she'll help get us out of it." Dipper said matter-of-factly. "She'd do anything to make sure that we're okay."

"Uh-huh! Wendy's always is there for us when we ask. And she's also there when we don't even ask for help! That's just one of the awesome things she does!" Mabel had started to bounce a little on her toes as she proudly explained. "She's always just as ready to go crazy with us as she is to watch our backs! Or help us chill out! Or make us feel better! Or anything! It's what makes her the best!"

"We can always count on her." Dipper proclaimed without the slightest doubt.

It was then that Mrs. Pines finally noticed it, and when she did she was stunned that she hadn't realized it far sooner. Her children weren't acting up against her. They weren't raising hell just because of some redhead's bad influence. No, it was absolutely nothing of the sort.

This was just…..confidence.

Both were simply defending a friend with a solid confidence the likes of which she simply wasn't used to. Mabel wasn't speaking out for mere positivity's sake, as she tended to do; she was speaking with a firm conviction that was coming straight from the heart. And Dipper….her little Dipper was standing strong on Wendy's behalf and looking like he wasn't going to budge in the slightest. These shamelessly bold-faced siblings were definitely a striking change from what she was used to.

She took a moment to think everything over. Perhaps she had judged a certain redheaded teenager a little too hastily.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She apologized again. Suddenly she felt like the world's biggest louse.

Not surprisingly, Mabel was the first to forgive her. The forever-optimistic brunette flashed a toothy grin. "It's okay. It's not like you can't make it better with Wendy, right?"

"Well…." Mrs. Pines balked, considering what she had done to their guest. She couldn't imagine that the girl would want to even be within a mile of the likes of her at the moment.

"Can you please just go talk to her?" Dipper pled firmly. "Please?"

She gnawed her lip in anxious silence for a few moments. This was going to be painful, no doubt about it. But it definitely had to be done. And as she rose to her feet, she could see hopeful looks light up her children's faces. The much-needed incentive brought a flash of a smile to her face.

"It looks like I've got some explaining to do." Her declaration was rewarded by two grateful hugs around her waist. She stroked their heads and sighed. "I just wish I knew where she ran off. Do you think she's in that thing in the backyard again?"

"Actually," Dipper only needed to give it a mere moment's thought. "I think I have a better idea of where she went…"

* * *

It was a sad sight to behold up on the roof. The lanky teen hugged her legs and buried her face buried down out of sight as the hot tears ran down her freckled cheeks.

Leave it to the girl from the middle of nowhere, Oregon, to come down and ruin things for literally everybody. Now she had an infuriated parent on her hands and a holiday that was probably going to be anything but jolly after tonight. It definitely didn't help her badly flagging spirits to listen to the faint sounds of Dipper shouting at his own mother, no doubt on her behalf. Unless getting grounded was a Christmas tradition, she doubted that would turn out well for her friend.

The girl's thoughts turned back north, to where all her other Corduroys were right now. Her brothers were probably all huddled around a fire, roasting whatever animals had been unlucky enough to stumble into their traps that day. She could picture her father ambling about the makeshift camp, pausing to check on the meat every now and then. She could see the boys all carving down sturdy branches down into spears, while the family patriarch would gruffly grumble how they would all need to make the points a lot sharper than that if they wanted to catch anything in the river first thing tomorrow morning. The scene would be cold, smoky, and everyone there would all undoubtedly be stinking to the high heavens.

And the mere thought of it all was absolute paradise compared to the mess of things she had made here. So much for all this holiday stuff.

There was metallic clunk as the top of the ladder came to rest on the side of the house. The startled girl immediately assumed that it was one of the twins, if not the both of them. Wendy wiped her face and braced herself for the awkward meeting that was going to start any second now, whether she wanted it or not.

"Hey, I'm sor-" She stopped dead mid-sentence. She quite surprised to see a very sheepish-looking woman appear.

"Uh….." Mrs. Pines anxiously cleared her throat. "H-hi there..."


	8. Chapter 8

At first Wendy just stared through watery emerald eyes. Mrs. Pines awkwardly drummed her fingers on the ladder before she worked up the courage to ask, "Is it okay if I come up?"

The teen waited a few moments before she decided she wasn't in danger of getting her head bitten off. At least, not immediately. "Yeah, I guess...I mean, it's your house."

With an overabundance of caution, Mrs. Pines hauled herself up and sat down near the teen. Once she was settled, they sat in uncomfortable silence together until she spoke up. "I'm sorry. Dipper and Mabel, they…..they told me all about your mother."

She quickly decided that merely one apology definitely wasn't going to cut it. "I'm so sorry, I honestly didn't know."

"Well, it's not exactly a thing that I like telling people." Wendy acknowledged, then let out a resigned sigh. "But yeah, that's a thing that happened."

A fresh silence descended on the two.

"Well, I guess long as we're being a little more open with each other right now….I have a few things of my own that I don't really enjoy sharing with everyone." Mrs. Pines took a deep breath. "So, it's probably no secret that it doesn't take very much to get me wound up….and that goes at least double for anything that has to do with my kids-"

The teen snorted, but then shot her an apologetic look. "Sorry."

The woman nodded understandingly. "Believe me, I get it. I can get stressed at the drop of a hat sometimes. And it doesn't help that a lot of things haven't come very easily for my twins. It's been a challenge for them literally right from the start."

Wendy cocked an eyebrow as she continued to silently listen.

"They gave their dad and I a big surprise when they were born about two months early. And so for those first few weeks…." The mother grimaced at the harsh memories. Even now they still made her stomach anxiously knot up a little. "It was nothing but visiting them day in and day out, always hoping today was going to be the day that they were big and healthy enough to finally take home. And if it wasn't then I all I could to was just sit with them, watching my children in their separate incubators, both of them looking so….just so small and so frail. Sometimes it felt like either one of them would accidentally break if I even looked at them too hard."

"Whoa…." Wendy's eyes widened as she softly admitted, "I...I never knew any of that."

"They were out of any serious danger pretty quickly." She gratefully clarified. "But it still took some time until either one was ready to leave the hospital. And after every time I saw them, I always managed to half-convince myself that I might lose at least one of my struggling little babies between now and the next time I could visit. So when you feel like you almost lost both of your kids right at the start….it's hard not to worry about them. It hasn't helped that they've both had more than their fair share of others challenges since then. Take Mabel. Her optimism has always set her apart from anyone else, and it really makes her shine…..but then as soon as something really gets to her, it makes her crash that much harder."

"Sweatertown." Wendy said with a brief ghost of a smile.

"Exactly. And she's always so trusting of others. And while most people adore her for it, there's always someone here and there who's willing to try to take advantage of that. And Dipper….. " She shook her head. "Where do I even start with my little guy? He's sensitive, he's somehow managed to inherit my anxiety and then some, and while his sister never hesitates to try and make new friends, most of the time he acts like half the world's out to get him. There's almost nothing out there that can't make him suspicious. We're talking about a kid who convinced himself that Santa Claus of all people was some kind of criminal mastermind when he was only six years old. Also of course there's the fact that he's never is as open as his sister about…anything. Especially if something's really bothering him. And then….."

Another pause. This was always hard for her to admit. "Sometimes I feel like I have to thank the heavens that they came as a pair. At least when other kids get tough on them, they always have each other for backup. I don't know if it's their interests, their hobbies, or just who they are….I mean, I wouldn't trade my Dipper or my Mabel for anything else in the world. But unfortunately there's just something about them that tends to make them targets for some kids."

The teen nodded understandingly. Having gone through middle school as a freakishly tall brace-wearer, she knew all too well just how cruel other children could be.

"So anyways, when they came back at the end of this summer, at first I thought I had even more to worry about with them. Suddenly they were a lot more willing to take all kinds of new risks, try things they never would have thought of doing before…well, at least not without some hesitation. And that all went double when it came to putting up with anyone who tried to tease them. Before, they would just try their best to ignore them. Then this school year started up, and in the very first week I got a phone call from the vice-principal telling me that Dipper got into a fight."

"Almost." Wendy felt the need to correct. She had heard this story the very day it happened via an over-excited flurry of text messages.

"Huh?"

"He almost got into a fight. But then those other kids completely chickened out at the last second. Remember?" She reminded. As she spoke, she did so with an uncontrollable hint of pride in her little dork.

"Oh. Uh, right, I remember. And then the same thing pretty much happened the week after when-"

The teen already knew what incident she was going to bring up. "Of course Dipper wasn't going to just sit back and let those guys in gym rag on Mabel like that. They were just asking for it."

It seemed like the lumberjill teen and her kids kept in a lot closer touch with each other than Mrs. Pines though. "Um…. so I'm guessing you know about what happened the week after when-"

"That thing in the cafeteria, right? Yeah. That other girl was lucky Mabel only got a handful of her hair." As Wendy practically boasted, Mrs. Pines could see much of the same fiery spark she had seen in her own twins mere minutes ago.

"It looks like you're pretty up to date, the. So, anyway….with all that going on, at first I honestly didn't know what to make of it. I thought the summer up at their great-uncle's had turned them into two little wild things. And when they started to talk more about you I….I thought I finally knew who was behind the big change in my twins. And when they asked if you could come down here for the holiday….I definitely balked."

She grimaced apologetically, then took a moment to get all of her thoughts in order. She was still very busy trying to process quite a few fresh revelations all at once. "But looking back…..while I was busy fussing all about that, maybe I should have taken a moment to notice that the scuffles at school stopped pretty quickly after those first few weeks….or that they've been able to get through the rest of the year so far without complaining about anyone else trying to pick on them….or I could have at least noticed that my little Dipper hasn't been stressing out as much as he used too."

"They can handle anything." Wendy declared matter-of-factly. "And especially anyone dumb enough to mess with them."

A small but genuine smile had started to creep its way across Mrs. Pines' face. It continued to grow and grow as she looked at the lanky redhead in a new light. This wasn't any out-of-control anomaly from the northern wilds. Yes, this girl was definitely someone who hailed from a place that was a far cry from suburban California. But above all else, this was someone who really cared for the twins with all her heart and soul. The mother was even slightly tempted to think that this wiry redhead cared for them almost as much as she did.

"You're still definitely different from anyone I've met before, I won't lie. But…" She paused to make sure she felt positive about what she was about to say next. The answer that came back to her from deep within was a resounding yes. "I'm also pretty sure that you're the friend that my kids need."

Wendy was surprised by the blunt confession. And after all she'd been through, she couldn't help but be only half-convinced she had just heard this woman right.

"Wait...seriously?"

"Uh-huh. Thank you." Mrs. Pines said with a soft but unmistakable sincerity. "For helping show them that there's so much more they can do."

"Yeah…..y-yeah, no prob." Wendy scratched the back of her neck. The praise made her freckled cheeks light up bright red.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask you a couple favors." Mrs. Pines continued.

"Favors? Uh…" The teen hesitated.

"Don't worry, I'm not bringing up the boots thing again. So first, I'd really like you to keep looking after my Dipper and Mabel."

"Huh? Oh...yeah. Yeah, of course. Anyone messes with them messes with me." She cracked her knuckles for emphasis.

"Thank you. And two; if it's okay….I'd like if you could come inside and continue celebrating the holiday with my family." She anxiously cleared her throat. "But only if you're ready….if you feel like you need a little more time out here or anything, trust me when I say that I'd definitely understand….I mean, after everything you've had to go through tonight….and the past few days too…..oh, yikes, I really haven't been making things easy for you at all here, have I? Well, I..."

As the woman slipped into a nervous stammer, Wendy could definitely start to see a little of where Dipper got his nerves from. She grinned weakly. "No, it's cool….I-I think I'd really like that."

"Thank you." The mother smiled. "And actually now that I think of it, I have one more favor to ask. Now I know it's going to be Christmas Eve already tomorrow...but...well as long as you don't mind the huge delay on my part _too_ badly... just let me finally say...I mean, if it's okay..."

"Say what?" The teen cut in and saved her from getting swept up in another stream of babbling. Mrs. Pines took the girl's hand and gently pat it before giving her long overdue greeting.

"Welcome to our home."

Wendy honestly couldn't remember how she ended up in a hug a second later, but she was ninety percent sure she was the one who had initiated it. For a moment she seized up with embarrassment. But when her friends' mother started patting her back, a rush of relief flowed from her wiry body.

"I'm sorry." Mrs. Pines whispered. The girl gave her an extra squeeze, and she gladly took that as a sign of forgiveness. When they were finished, she asked hopefully, "So, you feel ready to come back inside?"

"Yeah….I think I'm good."

"Wonderful. Okay, you can go down first. It'll probably take me a lot longer to-"

Before Mrs. Pines could finish, the teen had headed to the edge of the roof, lowered herself and clambered out of sight down into the nearest window. She gawked for a moment, then shrugged to herself. "...Um...that works too, I guess."

* * *

Wendy wasn't expecting to meet up with the twins so soon. The siblings unfortunately had chosen to listen out of the exact same window that the athletic lumberjill used as her improvised entrance. The fifteen-year-old swung right into the two of them, and in a heartbeat they all found themselves lying in a messy heap.

"Thanks a lot for the privacy." She remarked sarcastically while she untangled herself. Dipper started fumbling fruitlessly for a decent excuse.

"No, no! We were just….we were…uhhhh…"

"We were just checking to see if you and Mom turned out okay." Mabel confessed with shameless joy. "And you did! Congratulations!"

"Yeah, I guess so" She rubbed red rimmed eyes, which fortunately had run dry. "Thanks for helping her change her mind."

"Of course! But it was my bro-bro here who did a lot of the major serious-talking." She swung an arm around her twin's shoulders after he freed himself from their pile. "This guy, right here! Mister Christmas Hero!"

Wendy got up onto her knees and smiled at her friend. Dipper sheepishly grinned. "I was just telling her the truth. That's all."

"Thanks for the save, dude." She said gratefully.

"Hey, I need someone to be completely nuts with, don't I?" He reminded her. Wendy made sure to aim her affectionate punch in his uninjured right arm.

"Yeah you do." She then started chuckling in genuine embarrassment. After all the drama of the past hour, she couldn't help it. "Sorry for making your guys' holiday kind of weird. I mean, weirder than it already was. Like, uncomfortably weirder."

"Pffft! No worries! We had our apologies all around, and so now we can all get right back on track again for the best Christmas ever!" Mabel whooped, then proceeded to clamber up onto the older teen's back like a squirrel.

"So we're totally good?" Wendy laughed incredulously. "Just like that?"

"Uh-huh!" The younger teen tittered sweetly. "Because you know what?"

"Ooohhhh, man." The redhead could tell that things were about to get sickeningly sweet. "Mabes, don't..."

"Because you've made this holiday amazing by already giving us our best present this year, nice and early! And that present….iiisss…." Mabel was now standing up on her shoulders and bent over for an upside-down eye-to-eye. She prodded her friend in the nose and gleefully revealed, "Having you here with us! Boop!"

The rosy-cheeked brunette giggled as Wendy reached up and ruffled her chocolate locks.

"Know what? It actually looks like my best present came early too." She snickered.

"Huh? What's that?" Dipper then noticed the mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh no-"

"The first worthy challenge!" By the time that the twins remembered they had never finished their epic fight from a few days before, it was too late. In no time she had the both of them in a double headlock. Their laughter filled the entire upstairs as they struggled to wriggle free from her gasp.

"Get her!" Mabel squirmed loose and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Hit her with everything Stan taught us!"

"On it!" Dipper freed a scrawny arm and started tickling under their friend's neck.

"Oh, now you're asking for it!" Wendy managed to yank his vest partway over his head before the siblings managed to half-pin her to the floor. The battle was definitely on.

The enormous racket and the sounds of their mirth echoed all throughout the house. Downstairs, Mrs. Pines was recovering from the last hour with a fresh cup of chamomile tea. She was just finished pouring the piping hot water when her husband returned.

"Yeesh! What a madhouse out there." He bustled in, arms loaded with groceries. Mr. Pines then hastily deposited them on the counter before dutifully checking up on his significant other. When he left she had seemed pretty steamed, though as to what had gotten her wound her up so badly, she wouldn't say (though he did notice that right after she had stormed off, Soos had left the video chat in a hasty rush).

She was looking a little worn out, but to his relief she also seemed to have cooled down significantly. Actually, scratch that. His wife hadn't merely cooled off. She was looking more relaxed than he had seen her in days.

"Lyn?" he put a hand on her shoulder. She greeted him with a tired smile.

"Hey." She greeted him with a peck on his cheek.

"Uh, hi…is everything okay?"

"Uh-huh. Everything's just fine-" They were interrupted by a tremendous crash upstairs.

"We're okay!" Mabel reassuringly sang down from the second floor.

Mrs. Pines winced, sipped her tea and took a deep breath before she started softly repeating for her own sake, "It's fine...it's fine….it's all just fine…"


	9. Chapter 9

It was no surprise to Wendy that the Pines twins had a few unique holiday traditions of their very own. On Christmas Eve just the night before, Dipper had explained to her about how Christmas mornings in their house always began. Every year without fail his sister would wake him up at the crack of dawn by barging into his room to bounce on his bed while making the biggest happy racket that she possibly could until finally he got up. He had also told Wendy with extreme confidence that this was the year that particular tradition was going to end. Dipper excitedly went on and on about his plan to set his alarm to go off extra early and then sneak off somewhere else in the house, leaving nothing but an empty bed for Mabel to attack later on. He even thanked his friend for keeping her survival shelter up in the back yard, as that would make the perfect refuge for him to avoid his annual rude awakening.

The redheaded teen almost felt bad for him as she snuck into his room the very next morning a few minutes ahead of his schedule. Almost. He really should have known better than to tell someone he knew fully well could employ extreme stealth when she wanted to. Mabel chomped down hard on her lip while she stood in the doorway and gleefully watched her friend in action. The redhead moved like a shadow as she first turned off his alarm and then silently slipped under the bed.

Mabel now had to resort to biting down on the sleeve of her nightie to keep from blowing their cover. Wendy flashed a thumbs up, then rammed her knees up against the bottom of the bed. Dipper was launched half a foot straight in the air.

"I'm up! I'm up!" He yelped to no one in particular. The boy then reflexively rolled over and grasped for his alarm.

"IT'S CHRISTMASSSSSSSS!" Mabel hurled a handful of green and red glitter at the back of his head as she charged in full-speed. He turned around just in time for his epic annual holiday pounce. After hugging the breath out of his body she then jumped around and around him, sending his scrawny body knocking about. The bedsprings squeaked loudly as she finally sat down next to her sibling to cheerily sing, "Good morningggg!"

After Wendy reemerged she flopped back-first onto the foot of the bed, sending both twins rocketing briefly up into the air. Mabel snorted with laughter as she landed on her side while Dipper was flipped over onto his stomach. When the dazed boy looked up he found himself gazing directly into his best friend's smirk.

"Sup, dude." She cheekily greeted. "Can you guess what day it is?"

Dipper grabbed a pillow and proceeded to throw it over her head. "Well, looks like I'm never telling you anything ever again."

The remorseless teen chuckled as she tossed it right back. "You know you love it."

"Boop!" Mabel prodded him in the back until her twin turned to face her. She then asked sweetly, "So...cocoa?"

"Cocoa." He repeated with a yawn and a nod.

As they headed out into the hall towards the stairs, Wendy noticed that her friend went through an incredibly speedy transformation. In nearly no time he went from dazed and drowsy to jittery with nervous excitement.

"You okay?" She chuckled. Dipper looked up and grinned anxiously.

"Just hoping it's good. That's all."

"What's good?"

"Hold onto your socks and get readyyyy!" Mabel had turned into ecstasy personified as she bounced down the steps two at a time.

Wendy couldn't exactly explain what happened next. The tree was exactly where they left it, as were all the ornaments and other decorations adorning it. Also also the presents that had been accumulating under it over the course of the last few days were still in the same place too. Literally nothing had changed since when they all went to bed just the night before. But as she now laid eyes upon the scene before her in the living room, she found herself unexpectedly taken aback. There was something inexplicably…..beautiful about it. Something that she couldn't quite put her finger on, what whatever it was it made her stop halfway down the stairs to gawk like she had just stepped into the heart of a treasure chamber.

"...Whoa."

"So….you like it?" Dipper asked with a hopeful smile. The older teen continued to gaze wordlessly for a few moments more. Eventually she snapped back to the present with a slow nod.

"I think I'm starting to get what you see in this holiday…."

They had to wait in the kitchen with near-overflowing bowls of cereal and steaming mugs of hot cocoa, where the twins told stories of past Christmases while Wendy in turn regaled them with anecdotes from winter apocalypse training. Despite her best efforts, eventually Mabel couldn't take it any more. She rushed upstairs and returned with two sleepy parents shuffling along in tow. Once Mr. and Mrs. Pines had brew up a pot of coffee it was then time for one of the best parts of the whole day, or at least so Wendy had heard.

Everyone assembled in the living room and started to exchange presents. At first the family's redheaded guest was just happy to sit back and watch the sweet scene, especially when the twins traded gifts with each other. Mabel had thoughtfully bought a new vest for her brother (Wendy almost wanted to thank the little brunette out loud when Dipper first took it out of its box; his old vest had been getting a little too grungy even by her standards). Dipper in turn had gotten his arts-and-crafts-obsessed twin a brand new paint set. His sister gave him such a big thank-you hug that it was a miracle none of his ribs were broken.

After the sweet sibling spectacle finished up, Wendy finally felt brave enough to reach for several roughly-wrapped gifts lying grouped together under the tree. She plodded across the room and handed the largest one to Mr. and Mrs. Pines.

"I wasn't really sure what to get so….I decided to bring this from home with me." She murmured. "Uh, I hope you like it."

Despite the reassuring smile she flashed, Mrs. Pines couldn't help but be visibly on guard as she very tentatively opened up the box. She and her husband found themselves looking at four neatly packed jars, each one tightly lidded and filled to the top with a thick black substance.

"Oh! It's...it's….." Mr. Pines picked one up and curiously watched its contents slowly ooze about inside. After the array of surprises they had over the last few days, neither one was sure what to make of this.

"It's blackberry jelly." Wendy was showered with surprised looks from the whole family. The girl shrugged their understandable reactions off. "What? We have a lot of blackberries that grow near town. There's a place on Main Street that makes this."

"Is that so? Then I know what I'm overloading my toast with for the next few weeks." Mr. Pines cracked as he flashed the teen a playful wink. "If I let it last that long, at least."

Mrs. Pines gasped in relief before she gave Wendy a small hug. "It's lovely. Thank you."

"No problem. It's just something local from home." She tried to coolly downplay her gift. Okay, so far so good. One down, two more to go. Unfortunately now she was in the center of attention. Even Waddles seemed to be curiously watching her from his makeshift nest in a pile of wrapping paper.

Sensing that the girl was feeling anxiously out of her element, Mrs. Pines quickly reached for another gift and presented to her husband with a smile. "Here's a little something for you."

"Yes!" He whooped like a kid at the sight of a new cookbook. It was one of his inevitable presents every single year, and it never failed to excite him. He wore an enormous toothy grin as he affectionately joked, "How'd you know?"

She rolled her eyes and teasingly answered back, "I'll admit, it was pretty tough. You're always so difficult to shop for…."

Now that the parents were busy sharing their own private moment together, Wendy felt a little better. She took a deep breath and knelt down in front of the twins. "Sooooo, these are for you guys."

"Awww, but you shouldn't have! You're already our present, remember?" Mabel reminded her with a sweet smile.

"Thanks, but I'm not going to let all this work go for nothing." Wendy chuckled. Without further ado she handed them a little box each. Both twins made short work of the crude wrap jobs and opened the presents up in near-unison. Inside each box was a small wooden question mark, hand carved to look exactly like the logo of the Mystery Shack.

"Wow." Dipper gasped and looked incredulously to her. "Did you…."

"Uh-huh. My Dad's taught me more than just how to shoot and chop things." His friend said with no small amount of pride.

"Dipper, look!" Mabel squealed as she compared her little carving to his side by side. "They're like twins too!"

"More like triplets." Wendy felt a little cheesy saying that, but she didn't know how else to put it. She reached underneath her shirt and revealed a third identical wooden question mark that hung on a string around her neck. "So, you know it kind of sucks living in totally different states, right? Even though we can just call whenever, I was thinking….if we all have one of these, it's kind of like….you know, we're all a little bit closer."

The teen coughed and shifted the conversation. "These don't have to go on your neck. You can use it as like, a bracelet charm, or on a keychain, or whatever you want."

"Thank you." Dipper handled his like a precious relic. The sight got a laugh out of her.

"Dude, it's just wood."

"Nuh-uh! It's one of the most thoughtful things ever! Thank yoooouuuu!" Mabel's eyes were lit brighter than the nearby tree.

"Glad you like them." Wendy smile's hid her relief.

"Like it? Ooohhhhh, no, I love it!" In the blink of an eye she snatched Dipper's question mark away and gathered some nearby ribbon.

"HEY!" He protested.

"Just a sec!" In no time the arts and crafts master had fashioned him a temporary necklace that she shoved down over his neck (with a little more force than he would have liked). She used a shorter piece of ribbon and quickly fashioned herself a bracelet. Now that they were both properly wearing their gifts, she clapped her hands and excitedly announced, "Okay, now it's your turn!"

"Huh?" Wendy was immediately confused. "Wait, what do you mean my turn?"

"Wait, what do _you_ mean?" Dipper asked back. Now the twins were confused too, and together they shot her identical looks of bemusement.

"Do you mean like…. presents? But…..hold on, isn't this already it?" She waved her arm and gestured around the room.

"What is?" He cocked his head.

"You know, this whole having-me-down-here thing?" She explained.

"Oh, that's right! That's totally enough for-NOPE! One million percent wrong!" Mabel decalred before she attacked. The older teen was suddenly blinded as something was thrown over her head.

"GAH! Hey what-"

"Don't fight it! We're almost done!" A few seconds later she finished successfully getting her friend into a brand new hand-knitted sweater. "Ta-daaaaa!"

"I so should have seen this coming." Wendy remarked as she brushed the hair back out of her face. At the very least she was expecting her new garment to have a blizzard of glittery snow and a polar bear in sunglasses high-fiving a dancing Christmas tree. But to her surprise it was a stylishly simple emerald green affair.

"Do you like it? Pffft, what am I even saying? Of course you do!" Mabel scoffed. "See how I didn't give it a seasonal design? That way you can wear it whenever it gets a little too chilly! And check out that color. Nice, right? Now, I know what you're thinking, why didn't I go with red? Well duuuuuh, because this goes so well with those gorgeous locks of yours! And it really matches your eyes too, don't you think?"

"This is actually….wow." Wendy moved her arms about as she got used to the feel of the new sweater. It was extremely comfortable, and already she could tell that it was going to serve her well as soon as she returned home to her snowbound hometown.

"You're welcome." Mabel tittered proudly without any need for thanks.

"Speaking of, here's another one for you...I mean, not another sweater, but something for when the weather is….you get it, right?" With his usual smoothness, Dipper handed her a finely wrapped box. Inside the teen found a set of beautiful red flannel pajamas.

"Whooaa-hoooo, baby." Part of her wanted to rush upstairs right now and switch out of her current T-shirt and sweats.

"You keep talking about how much colder the winters are back in Gravity Falls." Dipper grinned with relief. "So I thought maybe this would make the nights a little better."

"Compared to here, it's like the north pole." She cracked. They shared a laugh before her friend turned and wordlessly gestured to his parents. The twins' mother got up and joined them.

"Okay, last but not least…." She handed over a small box. Wendy opened it to find a key waiting for her inside.

"Oh, uh….thanks?" She tried to be polite, but only a second second later she forced herself to admit, "I literally have no idea what I'm looking at right now."

"It's a spare house key. For this house. It's to let you know that you're welcome back here whenever you'd like." Mrs. Pines welcomingly explained.

"As many visits as you want, whenever you want!" Mabel encouraged her. " Summer's too far away to wait that long to see our Wen-Wen again!"

The fifteen-year-old had just been bombarded with holiday generosity. She hugged the new PJ's close with one arm and and smiled at the key now sitting in her hand. "I….I don't know what to…..thank you."

No one was able to get in a reply in before she abruptly reached down into her sweatpants. "Wait hold on….sorry, phone's vibrating."

She took it out, scanned the screen and shook her head. "Oh, man…. leave it to my Dad to really mess things. I got a call coming in from home. Is it okay if I go take this?"

"Oh, sure!" Mr. Pines smiled forgivingly. "Don't leave them waiting!"

"Thanks." She put her presents down and quickly headed upstairs.

The parents had been fooled, but Dipper didn't buy the admittedly convincing act for a moment. Thankfully, shortly after she left his dad presented his mom with a new robe while Mabel showed Waddles his new pillow-bed (and his brand-new light-up sweater, of course). It was the perfect opportunity for the boy to quietly slip away from the festivities.

Just as he expected, he heard sniffling as he approached the guest room. Wendy wasn't talking to her anyone on her phone. Instead she was busy wiping her watering eyes. The boy took a deep breath and cautiously knocked on the door.

"Wendy?"

The teen definitely looked a little embarrassed, but also didn't seem to be surprised in the very least. She chortled hoarsely. "I knew it probably wouldn't be long until you showed up."

"Sorry." Dipper blushed and stepped back a few paces out of sight.

"It's okay." She gestured for him to come in. "I'm just not a huge fan of tearing up with an audience, that's all."

"Is it the key that did it?" Dipper winced. Even if it was for a perfectly happy reason, he still didn't like accidentally reducing anyone to tears. Especially not a friend, and least of all his best friend. "Sorry. That was probably a little too much at once, huh? We probably should have waited a little for the key thing….but just to let you know, we all definitely mean it. After everything you did to make us feel at home in Gravity Falls, it's only fair. You know, if that's our home away from home, why can't this be your home away from home? And I know it's a long bus ride down and back, but you're definitely free to…..I mean, if our spring breaks happen at the same time, then maybe you could…."

As he awkwardly babbled on, Wendy didn't need long until she was able to put two and two together.

"...Not that I'm saying you have to come down, I'm just saying that we'd be okay if you...um…." He stopped when he noticed the fat smirk that was rapidly stretching across her face.

"The key was totally your idea, wasn't it?" She called him out.

"Uh…." Dipper's immediate pause gave her exactly the confirmation she needed. Wendy cracked up with a snort. The boy scratched the back of his neck and nervously chuckled. "Did I make it that obvious?"

"Yes." She didn't mince words. "And there's probably no way that you can be that good at picking out girl's pajamas."

"Definitely not…." Seeing as she was going to get the rest of the truth out of him no matter what, he decided to make it easier for himself and fess up. "Mom took care of all of that. I just thought if she gave my gift instead, it'd make you feel better about….you know, all that other stuff. But even if she didn't, she'd still want you to come back here too, just as much as we would. Now it's not like you have to come back here before the summer or anything, we just-"

He probably would have kept right on jabbering if the snickering girl hadn't knelt down and swept her best friend into a tight hug. Dipper could feel the red heat radiating off his face as she briefly nuzzled the top of his head.

"Thanks, Dipper." She whispered her gratitude.

"Thanks for being here." He was more than happy to wrap his noodle arms around her and return the warm embrace.

"Awww…..." Came a muffled coo from just outside the room. Dipper's blush immediately started glowing at double the intensity.

"Mabel?" He groaned. "How much of that did you-"

"She probably heard everything. Just accept it, man." Wendy rolled with it.

"Heard it all, saw it all, and got some photos too!" Mabel announced shamelessly as she revealed herself. Wendy mischievously held onto her embarrassed doofus for a little while longer.

"Make sure to get our good sides!" She requested while the little brunette happily snapped a few more pictures with her phone. "Sweet. Send them to me later?"

"Already on it!" Mabel enthusiastically texted them off. "And don't worry bro-bro, the happy memories are being sent to you too!"

"Thanks a lot." Dipper mumbled sarcastically.

"No problemo, Dippingsauce! But I'm not here just to creep around. Well, kinda, but mainly I come up because Mom's helping Dad start to throw breakfast together, sooooo I thought maybe would be a good time to…..you know….." Mabel hinted to her twin. "With the thing?"

As soon as Dipper caught on he snapped to attention. "Oh, right!"

Together they hustled out of the room, leaving behind a curious redhead. They soon returned carrying what appeared to be nothing more than Dipper's telescope case. But when they opened it up they revealed that there still had one last present for her.

"You didn't…." She couldn't believe her eyes. Despite Mabel's excellent wrapping job, she could immediately tell what it was thanks to its obvious shape. "How'd you even get this?"

"Stan helped! He bought it for us during Thanksgiving break after he convinced mom to let you come down." Mabel explained.

"Well, after we tried to buy it on our own." Dipper grimaced at the memory of that unsuccessful first go. "We definitely didn't think that through first time around."

"What are you waiting for?" His sister bounced up and down on her toes, "Open it! Open it!"

Just as she expected, it was a brand new hatchet. But what wasn't expected was the sight of her own name emblazoned into both the handle and the leather sheath that covered the blade.

"Oh, wow." She ran her fingers over the letters. "Guys…"

"It's so your brothers know not to take it." Dipper thoughtfully explained. Wendy held it for a couple wordless moments, and even did a few experimental twirls in her hand. She looked to her friends, and despite her best efforts to fight it she erupted with a loud sniffle.

"Wendy?" Mabel chirped concernedly.

"You okay?" Dipper asked.

"I'm fine. It's just…." As her eyes watered up fast, she reassured them with a chuckle. "The sweater didn't do it...the pajamas didn't do it….the key to your house didn't do it….but this axe….this stupid axe….oh man…."

It was all too much, and in the very best way possible. She croaked out a hoarse laugh as she finally lost it. While the tears began to flow down her pale cheeks, Wendy dropped down to her knees and opened her arms wide. The twins gladly obliged her, and they all joined up for a hearty group squeeze. However, it wasn't long until something occurred to Wendy.

"Wait a sec. So how come I got busted after just a couple days here, but you were able to hide this thing for a whole month?"

"Probably because we kept moving it to new hiding places." Dipper confessed. "Like, every couple days. We kind of developed a system."

"First Dipper's room, then my room, then the garage, then the attic, then repeat!" Mabel enthusiastically went into finer detail.

"Oh my God. You….you dorks." Wendy chuckled and wiped her tears in the younger girl's hair. The little brunette flashed a hundred-watt smile.

"But we're YOUR dorks!" Mabel happily declared, then promptly proceeded to tighten her loving crush. "And you're OUR Wen-Wen, and we wouldn't want anyone else with us here this year! End of story!"

"I know, I know." Wendy half-sniffled, half-snickered. "Merry Christmas, guys."

Dipper lit up with a grin that managed to outshine even his sister's as he felt their friend gratefully clasp them both as close to her as she possibly could. "Merry Christmas, Wendy…."


	10. Chapter 10

Another whole year had passed, and winter had once again returned to the deceptively sleepy-looking town of Gravity Falls. Stan Pines was lounging in his old recliner and distractedly flipping through the channels when the relative quiet was broken by a telltale honk outside. It sounded like Soos was back from the bus station. A grin swept across the old man's craggy features as he clambered to his feet and headed out the door.

"Special delivery!" Soos cheered and honked his truck horn again. One of the doors opens up and out spilled two fourteen year olds and a small pig.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Staaaaaaaaaan!" Mabel flashed a braceless pearly white smile while she raced headlong for him.

"Hey, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper trailed close behind at his sister's heels.

"Geez, you two again?! But I just had to spend another whole summer with you!" Stan complained in mock-annoyance before they nearly bowled him over in a joint crush. It was getting harder to withstand the force of these hugs the way the two of them had really started to shoot up like sprouts. But at least this time he stayed on his feet, and after steadying himself he wrapped his wrinkled arms tightly around the both of them. "Good to see you little gremlins back so soon."

The epic hug had just ended before another familiar face emerged from the Shack. Melody didn't get a chance to say hello or even get a single syllable in before Mabel detached from Stan and happily attacked her waist with a tight squeeze.

"MELLY!" The little teen squealed. The young woman bubbled with laughter as she squeezed the girl back with one arm and drew Dipper close with the other into a warm group embrace.

"Hey guys! Welcome back!" She excitedly greeted the siblings.

As soon as she let go, Mabel started bouncing all about with unrelenting joy. "We're here! We're here! I can't believe we're heeerrreee! Christmas in Gravity Falls! Ooooh, just look at it! It's like...it's like a Christmas card come to life!"

After marveling at the picturesque white-blanketed surroundings, she flung herself to the ground with a giddy laugh and began making an impromptu snow angel. Waddles flopped down and started rolling around in the snow beside her.

"You ready a whole week of this?" Dipper grinned at his great-uncle.

"Probably not." The old man half-honestly replied with a smile and a shrug. "But I'll try my best. Oh, and now that you're finally here…."

He turned and called back into the house. "Okay, hit it!"

The roof lit up brightly array of lights, all carefully arranged to spell out a familiar message.

"Yes! YES! Pines ruuuuule!" Mabel read the lights out loud at the top of her lungs, and agreed with a cheer. Dipper brightened up hopefully.

"Wait! So is-" His answer came before he was even done asking when another old man joined the reunion outside.

"Looks nice, huh?" Ford looked up at the roof and chuckled. "Though to be fair, I'm a little biased."

Even though they were happy to see him, the freshly-arrived teens couldn't help but let their faces falls a little with disappointment as they gave their other great-uncle a hug. Both of the elder twins easily noticed this.

"We know, we wish she was here too." Stan said with a nod. "But her old man didn't want her missing out on two years in a row on their wildman stuff."

"The whole annual training just feels so unnecessary at this point. I mean, what with the near-apocalypse having come and gone already." Ford gave his reasonable two cents on the matter. It had been pretty unfortunate the way Manly Dan had waffled back and forth all the past month before finally deciding just over a week ago that Wendy had to join the rest of the Corduroy clan for their usual "holiday."

"First Christmas up here, and no Wen-Wen." Mabel sighed.

Melody gave her empathetic pat on the head. "Trust us, no one's really happy about it."

"Yeah, Wen-dawg was especially bummed about it. But at least she got the time to put these up before she left with her dad and bros this morning." Soos nodded to the peculiar decorations up above.

"It's kind of like she's here, then." The brunette tried to look on the bright side of things. She glanced to her twin, who passed her a weak smile. It wasn't the holiday with the crew they originally hoped for when they had first been invited by their grunkles, but it was close enough.

"Oh, almost forgot." Ford remembered as he scratched Waddles behind the ears. "She also left a note for you too."

"Where is it?" Dipper asked way too excitedly for his own good. "Uh….I mean….do you have it?"

"Nah, she left it in your room upstairs."

"Great! Thanks Grunkle Stan!" Dipper took his bags and headed straight up to the attic, with Mabel trailing close behind.

Their shared room was more or less exactly as they left it since they last visited for their second summer up north only a few months ago, with a couple noticeable exceptions. A small handwritten note addressed to the twins lay on Dipper's bed, and nearly on the table a prepackaged platter of Christmas cookies waited for them.

"What'd she say?" Mabel plopped her bags on her bed with a squeak of old springs. Her brother sat down on his mattress, and was bounced an inch or two into the air when she took an eager seat right beside him.

"Dear guys - sorry I couldn't make this a twice-in-a-row deal." He read out loud. "But I still want to thank you so much for giving me at least one real-deal Christmas last year. I'll be thinking about it while I'm with my family all this week. In the meantime, don't get too bummed out without me. Just have a great time, and maybe my dad can let me leave training this year a little early. Hope to see you before you guys leave. Peace, Wendy. P.S. I left some cookies I got from the store. I would have made some, but you know I can't bake for the life of me."

As he finished reading, he reached under his shirt and took out the small hand-carved question mark dangling around his neck. The boy give it a squeeze while he let out a wistful sigh. "Hope to see you too."

"At least she left us a little something!" His ever-optimistic sister pulled him over to the cookies. "Ooooh, looks like she got us-"

She picked up the package, and by the time they noticed the attached string it was far too late. The siblings flew several feet up off the floor as a well-concealed net scooped up the both of them.

"Help!" Mabel yelped in panic. "Help! Help! Cookie betrayal!"

"Waaaait..." This all seemed awfully familiar to Dipper. His suspicions were confirmed when familiar laughter started to fill the attic. There was a clomp of boots as a flannel-clad figure dropped down from the rafters.

"Psyche!" Wendy grinned from ear to ear.

"Wendy!" Dipper gasped. "You're….you're here?!"

"Are you?" Mabel reached out and grabbed a handful of thick scarlet locks just to make sure. "Yes! It's the real deal!"

"Hey dudes." The redhead greeted with a casual nod. She then stomped hard twice on the floor, signaling to everyone downstairs that they could all drop the act. They could hear Stan's gruff chuckling echo up from from below.

"Sorry, guys!" Melody called.

"But…" Dipper's mind still reeled with joyous disbelief. "But I thought your Dad didn't want you to skip this year!"

"He really didn't. But it turns out if you show up at the house with a full grown doe that you caught on your own, he changes his mind pretty easily. After that, he decided that I'm probably as trained as I'm gonna get."

"Oooh, that poor deer!" Mabel couldn't help but be a little sympathetic.

"Don't worry, she was just totally fine. " said the older teen.

"But didn't you just say-"

"Anyone can take a bow or something and bag a deer. It takes a real Corduroy to take it down, bring it home, and release it in one piece." Wendy smirked as she proudly showed off a few heavy bruises on her arms. When the twins winced together at the leftovers of her ordeal, she reassured them with a simple and unrepentant, "Worth it."

"When did you even do that?" Dipper asked.

"Few days ago." She replied casually.

"And you couldn't tell us any of this earlier because…." The boy pried.

"Because surprises are fun, dummy." The older teenager replied matter of factly. Dipper burst out laughing.

"Yeah, for you." He reached out and yanked down the brim of her pine-tree cap.

"That's what counts!" Wendy snickered. Once she readjust her headwear back into place she sauntered over to the sturdy rope holding the twins up and lowered them back down to the floor. "So, it looks like you two dorks are stuck with me for another holiday."

The instant they were free they both rushed her. The redhead let out a grunt as she was squashed between them in a duel hug. But it wasn't long until the ecstatic twins could feel her wiry arms squeeze the two of them back just as fiercely.

"That's the best bad news I've ever heard." Dipper happily declared.

"Course it is." She replied cockily, followed by an extra squeeze for him.

"I kind of get the surprise, but was the net really necessary though?" He asked as he broke from the embrace. Meanwhile Mabel giddily held on to their friend for five seconds longer before she finally let go.

"You better believe it. This year you're on my turf, so we're doing the holiday a lot more Wendy-Style this time around." She announced.

"Last year wasn't enough?" Dipper's sass earned himself an affectionate shove.

"Not even close. Don't worry though, no one's sleeping outside this time around." She drew a blanket away from a lumpy pile to reveal her backpack, a sleeping bag, cot and pillow. Also crammed among all her things were what suspiciously looked like two half-finished bows that she hurriedly pushed out of sight.

"So what kind of stuff do you have planned?" Mabel asked as she bounced on her toes.

"A lot." She said vaguely.

"And how much of it is probably going to upset Stan and Ford?" Dipper pried.

"A lot. Probably." Her shameless answer got a hearty laugh out of her best friend.

"I'm in."

"Me too! Best first Christmas ever!" Mabel leapt several feet into the air with a mighty whoop. She then made sure to correctly clarify, "Best first Christmas in Gravity Falls ever!"

"Oooh, yeah it is. Okay, keep your boots and jackets on, and bust out those gloves, dudes." The redhead unsheathed a familiar hatchet.

"We're getting right to the itinerary already?" Dipper wore a grin big enough to split his face in half. Mabel giggled as she clapped her mittened hands. Wendy of course looked just as excited as the two of them, if not a little more so. It felt so good be back with her "other' family.

"Yup. It's like Mabes told me last year." Together the reunited trio happily trooped downstairs. "It's not Christmas without a tree…."

 **The End**


	11. Second Christmas (One-Shot)

Hey folks!

I figured that given both the time of the season and how insane things seem to be getting everywhere in general, I felt like now might be a good time for an early infusion of seasonal silliness with the rerun of my Christmas special fic. I went through and revised every single chapter doing a bunch of little revisions and slight changes to make it a little more in sync with the show (this story was originally published before the final two episodes), and I also eliminated most of the remaining weird typos that I'm so absurdly prone to making. So I hope this cleaned up story will get everyone a bit more into the holiday spirit!

Of course, it would be pretty silly / ridiculous / rude / (insert less-than-flattering adjective here) of me just to add a new chapter merely to say "Hey, the story's been cleaned up, that's all!" So I'm also publishing a little one-shot glimpse of Wendy's second real Christmas (and the twins' first winter holiday in Gravity Falls) that I wrote a few days ago for you all to hopefully enjoy. I can't promise that I'll be able to write more of the same, but I'll definitely see what I can do! I'll also try and make an attempt to make a Christmas one-shot for my "Pines Will Be Pines" story collection.

Happy holidays to everyone! - _**SGA**_

* * *

Dipper cracked his eyes open with a whopping yawn. As set up in bed and stretched his noodly arms he took a look around the attic to take stock of his roommates. Mabel's bed on the other side of the room was empty, and looked like it had been so for some time. It was probably completely safe to assume that she had already been up and about for quite some time already, energetically tending to all kinds of various holiday-related activities while brimming with her usual overload of seasonal glee.

It was a completely different story in the cot that had been set up between the two beds. Wendy appeared to still be deep in a dead sleep as she lay totally curled up in the warm confines of her sleeping bag like it was giant cocoon. Dipper muffled another yawn, slipped on a sweatshirt, then used every bit of stealth he could muster to tip-toe around his friend and out the door without disturbing her.

Once he was in the clear, he headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. He let his mind wander aimlessly as he plodded along, not thinking about anything in particular. It was Christmas vacation, and he and his twin were here in their home away from home. He could just relax and-

"BOO!" A familiar voice started the daylights out of him the instant he entered the kitchen. After jumping at least a foot into the air he whirled around to find a very unexpected sight. Wendy wore her beloved red flannel pajamas and a gigantic toothy smirk as she leaned up against the wall next to the doorway.

"What the…." Dipper gawked at her in a confused daze.

"Mornin', dork." She chuckled before downing a spoonful of cereal.

"Huh? Wait, but...but how did you get down here so…." The boy stopped dead in mid-sentence, then face-palmed when he mentally put all the pieces together. "That….wasn't you that I saw upstairs, was it?"

"Doesn't look like it." She affectionately tousled her best friend's hair and chortled at the look on his face. After he finished processing what had just happened, Dipper burst out laughing.

"Oh man….you are _good_." He praised her.

"I know." Wendy readily agreed with a snicker. She took a seat at the table while the younger teen prepared a heaping bowl of cereal for himself.

"So….I'm gonna guess that making decoys is something you learned over some past holidays." He rightfully assumed.

"Yup. My Dad taught us that whole strategy just in case we ever found ourselves camping out and had to deal with something crazy lurking nearby. You know, to turn the tables. So like, while a wolf or a cougar is prowling around, you stuff a bunch of clothes inside your sleeping bag and hide. Then while it checks out what it thinks is you, you can ambush it."

"Did that ever happen to you?" Dipper pried curiously. While the pair chatted, a young woman bustled into the kitchen.

"Morning!" Melody cheerily greeted them as she poured herself some coffee.

"Morning." The pair chorused back before resuming their conversation.

"Nah. Closest I ever got was my Dad testing me and my brothers by sneaking around on us at night." Wendy answered her friend's question.

"That's….uh, kind of intense."

"Dude, this is my dad we're talking about." She pointed out, but then conceded, "But yeah, that was a little much even for him."

After they shared a couple snickers together, Dipper stirred his cereal until he worked up the courage to ask her, "So….you that maybe you could-"

"No prob. I'd be happy to give you a lesson later." She laughed as she read him like an open book.

The grin he sprouted almost split his face in half. Before he could let his excitement go overboard he hastily he switched the subject. "Soooo, how's Christmas Number Two going so far for you?"

"So far so good." Wendy flashed a thumbs up across the table, "A little more low key than I expected, though."

"Really?" Dipper was surprised by this answer, as was the young woman who had started listening in on their chatter.

"Low key…." Melody curiously mulled these words before chuckling in disbelief.

"Hey, don't get me wrong or anything." Wendy turned around in her seat. "I mean, I'm seriously loving how chill everything's been here with all the weird TV specials we've been watching and all snacks and everything. It's just….I was kind of expecting more…..I mean, think about it. You have all of us together right here in Weirdness Central."

"Huh. You actually have kind of a point there." Melody agreed before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Like I said, I got no problem at all hanging with all my crew here." Wendy reassured. "It's not bad or anything like that. I'm seriously loving it, and it totally beats spending my time outside somewhere in a hole I had to dig out of the hillside. It's just….kind of been a surprise to me, you know? I mean, the first holiday go-around last year felt totally nuts, and I wasn't even in anyplace crazy. It was just some regular town. No offense or anything, Di-"

She was interrupted by the entrance of a chubby man dressed in black boots, a red suit, and matching cap. Soos's costume was almost complete with the exception of one very obvious and vital piece. He anxiously rubbed his bare face as he hustled around the kitchen, searching high and low.

"Soos? Everything okay?" Dipper asked while he watched his friend check beneath the rickety table.

" Where is it….where did I….." He murmured to himself. "Huh…..not around here. Hey, dudes? Have any of you like, seen a-"

"Hold on." Melody spotted the fake white beard hanging halfway out of his back pocket. She tugged it free and dangled it in front of his face. "Looking for this?"

"YES! There is it. Thanks ,Corn Chip!" He gave her a thankful peck on the cheek before slipping the fluffy facial hair on. "Okay, how do I look?"

"Perfect!" Melody gushed with a loving grin.

"Lookin' good, Kris Kringle." Wendy complemented, then asked, "So, what's going on here exactly? You and Mabes in a Christmas-off or something?"

"Oh that's right, you weren't here last year. Nah dude, we're doin' a Mystery Shack seasonal special. We're gonna bring Santa's Village to Gravity Falls for the second year in a row." He puffed his chest with pride. "It was my idea."

"Uh huh. And a much, much better alternative than that ice maze Stan wanted." Melody remarked. Right on cue, Mister Mystery himself entered the kitchen.

"Soos! Did you find-"

"Yup! Soos-a Claus is ready for duty!" The co-manager of the Shack stood smartly at attention. Stan grinned from ear to ear and rubbed his wrinkled hands in anticipation.

"Ooooh, we're gonna make another killing this year, I can just feel it. Kids will be lined up out the door and into the parking lot, all of 'em wanting to talk to Santa and get their picture taken for fifteen bucks a pop-"

"What?" Melody set her mug down and raised an eyebrow. "Hold on here. I thought we were only doing five dollars a picture."

"Uhhh….." Stan froze before he cooked up an obvious lie. "Yeeeaaaah, five. That's what I meant to say. Sorry, it's still kinda early. Hard to think straight when-"

"Stan, we agreed on this." She put her hands on her hips and frowned disapprovingly.

"Okay, okay, fine. Five bucks a photo." He relented. However, Dipper caught the telltale glint in his eyes from across the room.

"Grunkle Stan? Is the price going to stay that all day?" The boy asked.

"Uh…." The old man was taken off guard by his hyper-observative great-nephew. "Well-"

"You're not just going to jack up the prices later, are you?" Melody demanded.

"Look, let's just see what the deal is with our supply and demand, and then we'll-"

"Stanley, no." Another dissenting voice appeared. Ford entered the increasingly crowded kitchen.

"Ah c'mon! We're gonna have families flockin' in here from all over town, and they're all gonna want to make happy holiday memories for their kids! And good memories don't come cheap."

"Oh for…." His brother sighed. "Stanley, if there's one thing you shouldn't gouge people on, it's pictures with Santa."

"Huh?" Soos had been distractedly adjusting and readjusting his beard. "Wait, what are we talkin' about now?"

"Nothing." Seeing as he was rapidly losing the argument, Stan switched tactics and tried to change the topic of conversation. "Uh, so has anyone seen Mabel? She said that she was gonna handle the decorations, and I wanna make sure-"

Everyone suddenly heard the faint but unmistakable sounds of protest from across the Shack, which grew increasingly louder until two more people entered the room. Actually, to be more accurate it was one person and one humanoid forest creature (plus a small sweater-clad pig that trotted along on Mabel's heels).

"Good morning, family!" Mabel greeted everyone in chipper singsong.

"What in the world?" Ford exclaimed, startled to see an outraged gnome trailing along on his great niece's heels and ranting up a storm.

"...You can't do this!" Jeff, ruler of the gnomes, fumed nonstop. "You can't! How do you honestly think that you can get away with….."

The little teen meanwhile didn't appear fazed in the slightest by the tiny bearded man currently haranguing her as she checked a drawer. "Let's see, where's the...aha! There you are, extra glue gun! Thought you could hide from me, huh?"

"You can't do this!" The gnome kept yelled. "This is an injustice! You can't just round up a bunch of my people and make them do your bidding for your stupid human holiday!"

Mabel looked him right in the eye and merely giggled at his fury. "You're being the biggest silly right now, Jeff. You know that?"

"Silly? Silly?! What I'm doing right now is advocating on my people's behalf!" He shot back. "You can't make them stand still outside for hours for people to gawk at!"

"Whoa, hold the phone here!" Stan interrupted. "Mabel, what's he talkin' about?"

"My innovation! We're going all-out with our North Pole with super-realistic elves!" Mabel boasted.

"We're what?"

"Santa's elves! I got us a whole crew of gnomes who are gonna be dressed up in green and red, with little bell hats and everything! And they'll be all positioned to look like they're busy making toys, and…." She was so excited that she had to pause to clap her hands and let out a squeal. "Oh it's gonna be the best! All the kids will love it!"

Without missing a beat she then turned back to the enraged gnome chief. "And I told you already, no one is forcing any of your guys to do anything. I put out flyers by your grove yesterday, and anyone who wanted to apply to be an elf for a day did so through the proper channels!"

She reached into her jacket and took out a manilla folder that was crammed full of forms. "See? Everyone submitted an application like I asked, and they all signed their own contracts and everything! Mabel Pines is a legitimate seasonal employer!"

Jeff briefly glanced through all the meticulous documentation. He softened up a little, but still flashed her a grumpy scowl, "Well…..I bet you used some kind of-"

"Nope, no tricks or anything like that here! Only promises of fair wages for a fair day's work! Everyone gets three of my secret-recipe homemade Christmas cookies an hour, unlimited bathroom and Mabel juice breaks, and a slice of my famous candy cane pie ie at the end of the day for their holiday bonus!"

"Huh." Jeff scratched his beard. "Candy cane pie, huh?"

"Uh-huh! And trust me, it's just's as delicious as it sounds! And this year I baked whole gingerbread men into them too!" She boasted.

The gnome chief fell silent as he temporarily deep into thought. "...How big a slice of pie are we talking about here?"

"No size limit! I baked plenty to go around this morning so everyone gets as much as they want!" Mabel replied.

"Wow." The gnome's demeanor had changed dramatically in the last half-minute. He now shuffled his feet, met her gaze and asked awkwardly, "Uhhh….so, are you….um, I know this is kinda last minute, but…..you still talking applicants?"

"Yup! The more the better!" Mabel gave him a hearty handshake. "Welcome to Santa's Village! Your guys are getting ready out back. I'll get your papers ready to sign before we open."

"Yes ma'am!" Jeff scurried off out of the room. Everyone gawked at the over-enthused gnome until he vanished from sight. Ford turned and looked back at Mabel.

"You...you hired gnomes?" He said incredulously.

"Well, of course! I mean, they're just perfect for the part, right?" Mabel replied. "It's just common sense."

"That….is…..GENIUS!" Stan exploded gruffly with delight. As he started laughing up a storm, he reached for his great niece, tossed her up into the air and caught her in an adoring hug.

"I know, right?" Mabel giggled while he hefted her up onto his shoulders. "It just hit me yesterday morning. I was sketching out some decorating plans and then BOOM! Best idea ever out of nowhere!"

"It's genius, kid! Pure genius!" Her great-uncle lavished praise upon her. "You're gonna probably gonna give us at least double the traffic today!"

"You think so?" Her eyes sparkled brightly.

"Hey, You're talking to an old business pro. I know a money-booster when I see one, and you better believe that I see the heckuva out right now." He said matter-of-factly before he paraded her out of the kitchen. "You make your Grunkle proud, you know that?"

"I make everybody proud!" Mabel happily boasted.

"Great thinking, Hambone! Santa's Village is gonna look crazy amazing now!" Soos almost had a skip in his step as he excitedly followed. Mabel's squeaky laughter echoed all throughout the Shack alongside Stan's enthusiastic cries.

"We'll be able to charge 'em fifteen bucks a picture now! No, twenty! No, twenty-five! And not only are gonna fork over the cash, they'll be happy to do it! Who else is gonna have a setup like ours? The Santa at Gravity Mall's got nothin' on us!"

"Twenty-five dollars?" Melody shook her head, took one last sip of coffee and headed off after them. "Stan, no!"

Ford took off in pursuit too, protesting loudly all the while. "You can't be serious about this! Part of a gnome colony all just standing out in plain view? Now just hold on…."

The kitchen rapidly emptied. Soon the only ones left were Dipper and Wendy still sitting at the table and Waddles lapping up at his water dish. The two teens passed one another silent looks. The boy's face scrunched up, and the lanky girl let out a snort. Together the two quickly dissolved into unstoppable laughter.

"I'm...I'm pretty this just became an official Gravity Falls Christmas." Dipper chuckled like mad.

"It totally just did." Wendy nodded in one hundred percent agreement. She then paused to listen to the still-ongoing racket and burst out snickering again. "Oh yeah, now that's the good stuff there….."


End file.
